


Finding Angels in Hell

by LaLunaWritesStuff



Series: Findings [1]
Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types, spideypool-fandom
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Children, Conspiracy, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family, Fluff and Smut, Love, M/M, Missions, Organized Crime, Slow Build, mentions of abuse (later)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-03-30 13:14:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 62
Words: 285,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3938143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaLunaWritesStuff/pseuds/LaLunaWritesStuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a mission leaves the Avengers and their allies on the tracks of a plan so sinister and dark, nobody believes anything good can come from it, not even in Peter Parker's arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Back with another one ... what should I say, there were actual legit tears during writing some parts of this story.  
> We're in for the long run with this one, maybe around a hundred chapters, but I promise you it's gonna have a happy ending. Until then, it's going to be gorey at times, brutal, dark, but there will be enough happiness in between, so I hope you'll bear with me <3
> 
> This one is the Prologue, actual first chapter goes up in about a week  
> Enjoy <3

Most of New York’s greatest heroes were out and about tonight. Some unknown organization had attacked the city, targeting all big train and subway stations, obviously out to eliminate as many innocent people as possible.  
Spiderman and Deadpool were tasked with protecting another subway station, the Merc fighting off attackers with his katana swords, kicks and punches while Spidey was helping the frightened people into stores and hotel lobbies nearby, blocking oncoming bullets or debris with his webs.  
“Lock the doors, stay down or behind furniture,” he ordered and smiled under his mask when some shouted thanks at him from the crowd. 

Back out on the street, Peter rushed to help Wade with their enemies, who looked a bit like ninjas, all dressed in black from top to bottom. Webs flew through the air and somewhere in the distance an explosion shook the ground. 

The two men managed to fight their enemies all the way back to the end of the block. In the distance, Peter could see Iron Man shoot by, and another explosion rumbled far away.  
"We have to contain them!“ Wade shouted over to him, because of course the Avengers would want someone to interrogate and maybe find out a reason for all this chaos.  
"I'm trying!“ Peter replied when flying past him, shooting webs left and right.  
It seemed like they were at least getting the upper hand, but then Peter heard a sound behind him and his head whipped around. The very same second, he saw how Wade got wrestled to the ground by a whole group of black-clad figures. 

Peter yelled in surprise when two guys jumped on his back when he was just close enough to the ground, pushing him onto the dirty pavement, and a sharp pain jolted through his upper right arm. There was a stinging burn spreading through his arm.  
He yelled again, angry now, and fought with all his power, eventually throwing the attackers off him. He kicked and punched around, shot webs and in the end pulled himself up in the air, gasping in shock and rubbing a spot where a little trickle of blood seeped through the costume. Peter had no idea what had happened, he couldn’t see a blade stick out or find a bullet wound.  
“No running away!” Wade bellowed and exchanged the swords for guns now, grinning obviously through his mask when the first few fell to the ground when his bullets found their targets. They lay there, rolling around in pain, because whenever they were fighting with the Avengers, Wade resorted to non-lethal injuries. But he did know where his bullets would hit nerves and result in extreme pain. 

Peter just slid down again on a web when he saw how the injured got literally picked up by their companions, scurrying away fast.  
“We have to stop them!” Peter shouted, gritting his teeth and trying to forget about that wound in his arm, although it made his spider-senses scream. Something was very wrong about this stinging pain, but there was absolutely no time to investigate. There was no big damage and no weapon left behind, and knowing that would have to suffice for now.  
Wade’s heavy boots thundered over the concrete as he set to hunt down the fleeing man, but suddenly there was another bang. 

For a brief second, Peter expected it to be just another explosion – until a bright white light flared up all around. He uttered a pained shout as he was momentarily blinded, actually so startled that he lost grip of his webbing and smashed onto the street, barely missing a parked car. 

 

When the ringing in his ears and the burning in his eyes finally subsided, Peter saw that Wade was also struck down, holding his eyes and groaning from the pain. It took him some more minutes to regain his sight, since he’d been closer to the explosion or whatever it was.  
“Ugh, that looks bad,” Peter mumbled, feeling sorry when he saw the red, swollen eyes of his lover after he’d pulled the mask up.  
“Feels bad, too. Let’s find the others, maybe we can still help, I’ll be good as new in a moment.”

 

It turned out all of their enemies had vanished this very second, leaving New York in chaos with heroes scattered everywhere. They met up here and there, eventually coming together at a SHIELD facility where they could discus what happened and what steps were to take now.  
Unfortunately, nobody had a clue what might have brought on these attacks.  
But, what they could all surprisingly agree on: everyone had at least seen one of the other heroes get attacked and stabbed in the arm, or gripped on the head, leaving a bit of hair missing. 

 

It took about seven nerve-wrecking months until all of the heroes gathered again at Stark Tower.  
Captain America met them, standing at the head of a huge conference table, together with Iron Man.  
“Pretty big names here, huh?” Wade whispered to Peter, as the two sat down next to each other.  
“Uh huh,” the younger man muttered back, taking his lover’s hand under the table. 

 

When everyone was seated, the Captain began talking, recapping the events.  
“Apparently, the attacks on civilians were just decoys. They wanted all of us to come out and play, so ... that they could get samples of our DNA. The stabs were probably blood samples taken, the hair pulled out to later get analized. We can only assume the worst, so we will be looking for a big or several smaller laboratories.”  
Several uneasy glances were exchanged. Some of the people in this room had blood that was flat out poisonous and could do all kinds of distruction. In addition, this would also explain why people like Wade didn’t report any of those attacks, their enemies must know that some samples weren’t going to work. 

It had been a planned assault, the victims carefully handpicked and lured out so those people could strike in the midst of chaos.

“So, we’re going after them?” Wolverine asked darkly from a corner of the table.  
“At least we don’t need to blindly hunt around,” it was now Iron Man who answered. “We already followed their tracks to a base, thanks to some of you who’s blood gives off radiation. We will go in and destroy it, taking only our samples and the enemies for later prosecution.”  
“We assume that it’s not the only place they keep the samples at, but it’s a place to start. And we would like to ask some of you for your assistance in this mission,” added the Captain, taking a handwritten list which Iron Man regarded only with rolling eyes. He began reading the names, glancing up after each one for an answer.  
When Peter’s name sounded, the hero wasted no time nodding, even though Wade wasn’t mentioned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, now the story officially starts. You'll get a good enough impression of where we're going with this ... it's gonna be pretty dark and gorey, but I hope you'll stay with me.  
> Next chapter will be up in about a week =)
> 
> Enjoy <3

Only the roaring of the Quinjet’s engine was audible in the passenger’s cabin. In front of the pilot and co-pilot, small lamps and screens flashed periodically. 

The whole plane had fallen eerily silent after the Team had boarded it. None of them had expected for this mission to turn out the way it had, and each one of the Avengers and their allies seemed shaken to the core.  
Even the most experienced ones under them – like Hawkeye, who was piloting, or Captain America – looked deeply in thought. Peter felt oddly calm, at least he had not a single nerve left to be hysteric.  
Even though he had more than enough reason to be. 

None of them said a single word throughout the flight, not even as they descended toward a runway, ashen faces staring into nothing. The only thing that changed was a little sign that blinked over the pilot’s cabin to tell them they needed to put their seatbelts on.  
Peter didn’t care for it, because the others had strapped him into his seat with belts not only around his hips, but also across his torso.

He was finally pulled out of his stupor when the bundle in his arms started wiggling around, probably irritated by the shaking, rattling plane. He looked down, still extremely shocked how he’d even come to have this little thing.  
A chubby arm poked out from underneath the brown, scratchy blanket and tiny fingers wiggled until Peter put his hand around them, holding them securely. Not even an hour ago, both of them had been covered in blood. Somebody had cleaned them both up, but somehow Peter still saw the red liquid dripping down onto a puddle on the floor. Red. Everything red.  
Since they were beyond repair, he had tossed his Spiderman gloves into a special bin inside the Quinjet, that someone would later light on fire and burn everything in it, may it be hazardous or just too damaged. Peter had just about managed to keep the rest of his clothes on, although they were bloodsoaked as well. He didn’t even dare looking down at himself, glad the little bundle in his arms obscured his view. 

 

They landed safely, if a little bumpy, on a secured SHIELD base – everyone just sat and listened as the engines whirred to a stop and a hatch in the back opened to let them step out. One by one they got up, their tired, heavy footsteps echoing through the plane and down the metal hatch.

Peter trotted along next to the other Avengers, while a medical team rushed out of the building on the far end of the landing strip. They hurried past them, until one of the white-clad doctors stopped Peter. The young hero looked up, surprised that he didn’t even notice someone standing directly in front of him until the man grabbed his shoulders.  
“Spiderman,” he said.  
“Yes?” Peter answered slowly, wondering in his foggy mind why his tongue felt so heavy in his mouth. He saw the doctor nod knowingly. The grip on his shoulders got firmer and he guided Peter to the entrance.  
“We’d like to have a look at you both, let’s go inside,” he explained slowly, pronouncing every word overly clear, but Peter still had a hard time fully understanding him. How odd, it wasn't even that loud around. Maybe the doctor was mumbling.

There were long corridors, first they looked like they belonged to an upscale office building, then they turned brighter and a strong smell lingered in the air. Peter faintly registered it burning in his nostrils, but he couldn’t have cared less even if his whole body was on fire. 

 

Peter had lost all sense for time and had no idea how long they wandered through hallways that began to look more and more alike, confusing him and making him dizzy. Eventually they stepped into a room and Peter sat down onto the gurney without being told so. He didn’t care anymore, he was just so so tired.  
Yawning deeply, Peter began to gently rock the bundle in his arms, to stop it from wiggling around so much. 

Now alone in this quiet room that smelled so clean, Peter felt himself relax the tiniest bit and immediately felt sleep tugging at him.  
Fingers were snapped loudly in front of his face, startling him and making him shoot webs at the doctor, who just looked a little surprised.  
“You’ll have to stay awake for a little while,” the doctor told him and made him reach his hands out one after the other, had Peter do some coordination tests where the young hero wondered if he looked drunk or anything. 

 

A bit later, a nurse came into the room and shot one glance at them, then closed the door behind herself. Peter tried to focus on her, but it all seemed so hard, only when she slid her hands around the bundle in Peter’s arms, he opened his mouth to protest.  
“It’s alright, I’ll stay here with you. I just need to look at it, okay? See if everything’s alright,” the nurse said in a very soothing voice and Peter nodded dumbly at her.

The doctor came back into his field of vision, asked him some confusing questions and waved a light in front of his eyes. Then he gave him an injection and an IV and told him to lay down.  
“Please don’t take her away,” he begged barely whispering, when the drugs seemed to blurr everything around him.  
“Don’t worry,” someone said from far away and then he was asleep. 

***************************************************************************

Sometime later Peter woke up in a SHIELD infirmary, groaning and rubbing his tired, burning eyes. The mission still haunted him, but at least his head felt clearer than before. He didn’t even know how much time had passed, but the ringing in his ears was gone, he didn’t feel this extreme weight on his shoulders pushing him down.  
Then, he remembered.  
Peter’s head whipped around, he sat up so quickly that he made himself dizzy.  
“Oh, there you are,” he breathed out, stumbling over to the small bed next to his. 

The little girl stared up at him, her blue eyes big and questioning. Someone had dressed her in a light pink onesie and wrapped a plastic tag around her chubby arm.  
“Thank god, you’re safe,” Peter whispered and picked her up, immediately feeling better by the delicate weight of the baby in his arms. 

 

***************************************************************************

 

Wade felt his heart sink all the way down into his stomach as he saw the red light on the answering machine blink. He had just returned home, expecting to see his Peter there safe and sound.  
The Merc had been called on a more than well-paid job just when Peter had received the call from Stark, the Avengers’ mission lead them all to South America, there’d been cues the attack might have been issued by HYDRA.  
They had agreed to go on their respective missions and meet up again in time for dinner, exactly a week later. 

Now, Wade stood alone in the deserted apartment, his chest heaving and cold sweat breaking out from the sheer panic that flooded through him. Something awful had happened, he could feel it.  
The angrily blinking red light on the phone only made it worse. 

Wade gulped, pulled his cell phone out from his cargo pants and activated it, since he always turned it off for missions. There were more messages. One text read that he should get to a New York SHIELD facility as soon as possible, attached were address coordinates.  
The Merc was out of the window again and dashing through the streets in mere seconds. 

He arrived at the tall, nondescript building and noticed the heli standing on the roof. Panting both from exertion and from panic, Wade shoved the big, bulletproof glass doors open and stormed through, where he was met by three guys in suits.  
“Mr. Wilson?”  
“Yeah. – Yes. – Where’s Spiderman?” he asked, since he couldn’t recall if those guys knew about Peter’s secret identity.  
“Follow me, please,” one of the suits said and Wade was guided into an elevator and they went underground pretty fast. The Merc expected to turn up in some kind of infirmary, maybe, but when the elevator doors opened, he was ushered into an office space.  
“Uh ... hi ...,” he mumbled, very surprised to see the gathering before him. 

In several rows in the big presentation room, there were some of New York’s greatest heroes, but also some humans. Wade could make out Bruce Banner, some more Avengers, some from which he knew were heroes, but had never bothered learning their names. There were some other SHIELD agents, and a few of the hero’s assistants, one of them Wade recognized as Pepper Potts.  
All of this was very weird to Wade, since it seemed like some kind of debriefing, but what would all those people do there, that weren’t part of the mission? The Merc’s observation skills kicked in and he noticed how some of them looked nervous. Some typed hurriedly on phones or tablets, clearly rescheduling appointments or making other kind of last-minute changes.  
If it weren’t ringing already because Peter wasn’t there, Wade’s inner alarm would’ve gone off this very second. 

Something was very wrong here and all Wade wanted to do was run off and find his spider, bring him home and away from everything.  
Only the three guys in suits that entered kept him from doing anything. One carried a small silver briefcase and connected it to a small black box that was probably a computer. On the massive screen that was fixed on one wall of the conference room, a standby signal showed. 

“Thank you all for coming here today,” one of the suits started out, positioning himself in front of the screen.  
“What's going on?” a concerned voice asked from the back of the room, sounded like a young woman, maybe someone's sister, Wade mused. Still, his gaze never left the agent, registering every little shift of muscle or change in expression. 

Now he moved a little, just changed his footing, but Wade knew it was a gesture of insecurity. So something was indeed very wrong and he was possibly afraid of people in this room freaking out. If he didn't start speaking up soon, Wade thought he might be the one to fit that role.

“Uh, let me give you some insight on the situation. As you may or may not know, we had to send out a specialized team for a rather complicated mission to a recently discovered HYDRA research facility. Please note that by research those people very well mean human experimenting with dangerous source materials. The last step in this mission was to destroy all remains of the base in a controlled explosion to ensure it could not be reclaimed.”

“An explosion?!” someone else interrupted startled, but Wade was too engrossed in watching the agent, who now began to get a bit hot under his collar, considering the little drop of sweat gathering on his temple. Obviously, by dangerous material he’d meant the samples these fuckers had gotten out of far too many heroes.  
“Please, let me finish,” he said, trying his best to sound confident, but Wade noticed how his voice trembled on the vowels.

“Then do,” Wade growled, starting to get fed up. His fingers itched to be put onto one of his many guns – SHIELD had long given up on searching him for weapons – and just shoot his way to Peter.  
“Yes, uh ... of course. – We will present you with some footage from our recent mission, after that I’m sure you’ll understand why we called you here.”

 

Their little crowd stared at the screen in front of them, watching as several shaky videos were playing on split-screen. Apparently, most of the team members had some kind of hidden camera on them, so that they could gather as much intel as possible without having to be vocal about it.  
Little symbols at the bottom of each image indicated who was behind the camera, and when Peter’s little spider symbol showed up, Wade was sure that the camera was hidden in the spider right in the middle of his chest. 

The first part of the mission went pretty well, if Wade was any good to judge. They got to their destination quickly, took out some guards and stormed the building without activating an alarm.  
The facility was partly underground, and the hallways were only sparsely lit, as if no one really expected anyone to come through anytime soon.  
“Fan out, look for an entrance to the lower levels,” Captain America’s voice was heard over the comms, then the team split up. 

The feed was obviously censored, because in the next few scenes the team had found several entrances and had already entered the building. They were met with surprisingly little resistance, but when Wade saw how some hallways and staircases led further underground, he could guess why.  
It was easier to lure your enemies into a trap underground then to fight them off at the door.

Still, the teams pushed their way into the facility, basically mowing down doors and disarming, partially stunning guards along the way. It looked like they slowly invaded the research part of the place, dark concrete and reinforced doors slowly changed into polished floors, lots of metal and double doors wide enough for medical stretchers to be wheeled through.  
Wade felt a seemingly ancient, bone deep shudder go through his body when he saw all that, because it was too close to his past for comfort. On the split screens, the team raided several corridors and some even secured some data feeds on computers, storing everything they could get their hands on on flash drives. 

Even though there were still several videos playing at the same time, Wade just had eyes for the one that showed the little spider symbol in the bottom corner, his heart thumping heavily with worry.

 

Since he was one of the fastest, and had some built-in mechanisms to contain his enemies, Peter was one of the first in line. Wade’s heart constricted, because although he knew that the younger man could defend himself, he was worried sick.  
Peter’s camera feed all but raced through the corridors, flipping upside down from time to time when Peter climbed the walls to get out of their enemie’s reach. Soon he was alone on his way deep down into the facility, but with a quick glance at one of the other feeds Wade saw that at least some corridors away there was Hawkeye, raiding through laboratories. 

Peter seemed furious, bolting through the halls, and briefly Wade wondered if he’d gotten a special order that made him rush like that. Maybe he was specialized for finding the samples, since he didn’t actually had to be that close to them, just close enough to shoot webs and haul them over. 

 

After a few minutes, Peter slowed down, looking around more, maybe deciding he got closer to his destination. He opened one door after the other, slowly at first, then more confident when he wasn’t met with any obstacle.

There was a loud rumbling and sand and dust fell down in front of Peter’s camera.  
“What’s going on up there?” he asked over the comm, but didn’t get an immediate answer. 

“Something just blew up and it might not be the only one!” a voice warned, but the static on the line was too intense to make out who was talking. Peter cursed under his breath, but then continued through the hall, ripping open one door after the other, not even bothering to be stealth anymore.  
More booms sounded in the distance and the lamps on the ceiling began to shake from side to side. 

Then, after the last ripped-open door, Peter’s dim light reflected on metal bars. Lots and lots of bars ... cages.  
And haggard faces, with eyes too big and wide with fear, hair sticking to the papery skin.  
“Oh ... god ...,” they all heard Peter whisper as some bone-thin fingers closed around the bars, hoarse voices begging him to help. 

 

“I found hostages!” Peter all but yelled into the comm, running now towards the cells. There were sighs and moans coming from further down the hall and Peter ran faster, then ripped the first few doors out of their hinges.  
“Run up the hall, turn left!” he commanded and told his teammates that he sent up the hostages. The rumbling got louder still, Wade thought it must’ve been several explosions going off at once.  
This had nothing to do with controlled ... perhaps, someone activated a kind of destroy mechanism for the whole place.

 

“Try to shut down the systems, we have to get the hostages out of here!” one of the team members shouted over the fuzzy comm, it was probably the good Captain. “And we _have_ to find the samples!”  
“Copy that, I’ll move on!” Peter answered loudly over the rumbling going on all around.

At the end of the hallway Peter found another solid metal door and all but yanked it open, surprising everyone watching with his strength. Behind the door everything was pitch black and it took a while before Peter found a switch or something and a light shone in front of him, probably from some kind of hidden flashlight.  
Clearly, the young man had little experience with equipment, but Wade couldn't hold that against him, given the expertise Peter had with his webs and high altitudes. 

“I found some kind of entrance to lower levels, I'm gonna go in.”  
”Be careful, Spiderman. We’ll send backup as soon as we can!” the Captain answered him and Peter just muttered an “uh – huh”, even though it wouldn’t be audible over the communicators. On any other day Wade was super proud of Üeter for handling all kinds of situations on his own in the streets of New York. But now he desperately wished the young man had waited just a little, because he got a worse and worse feeling every passing second. 

 

In the faint glow of Peter’s flashlight, another corridor appeared, but this time only one door was visible at the end. Peter ran towards it and grabbed a heavy vertical bolt with both hands. He groaned and pulled, eventually leaning down almost to the ground until the metal hinges broke with a high-pitched creak.  
Behind the door was some kind of operating room, with huge circular lights that hung from the ceiling, and tiles everywhere, Wade even spotted drains on the floor. 

“What the –“ Peter trailed off when he stepped further into the room, only able to gasp.

He looked straight at a woman, who was strapped to some kind of reclining chair. It could also have been a medical device, but her heavily pregnant belly made it difficult to see anything behind her. Another explosion shook the building and the camera feed shook when Peter sprang into action.

“We gotta go, do you understand me?!” Peter asked, but the woman just stared at him. “No, then, nevermind, just ... let me.”  
With that, he started ripping out the leather cuffs that held the woman to the lounger, making her yelp in surprise. 

The first big chunks of concrete fell from the ceiling and Wade’s trained eyes found big cracks showing up in the walls.  
“Okay, we really gotta hurry. I’ll help you, don’t worry.”  
Peter grabbed her hand, but she shouted again and pulled herself free after just a few steps.  
“I want to help you! Come with me, please!” 

She just opened her mouth to say something, but they both got interrupted by the next explosion, shockingly close by.  
With one big crash, the ceiling spit out a truckload of debris and Peter groaned when some of the large pieces hit his head. His hands were on the floor then and Wade realized that Peter must’ve ducked down and made himself as small as possible.

When he struggled onto his feet again, getting hit over and over again by the dropping concrete, the screen began turning red at the top from splatters of his blood.  
After a shocked moment, Wade realized that this was an incredible amount of blood trickling into Peter’s field of vision, his head wound must’ve been quite severe.  
Then, there was even more red when Peter was finally able to stand. 

It was the pregnant woman, a big piece of the ceiling had hit her. Her body was crushed by debris from the shoulders up, and her arms were gone, too, maybe she’d wanted to shield her head. 

It was one of the worst things Wade had ever had to watch. He could hear Peter’s labored breathing, the hero was practically wheezing. Then he started to sob, but didn’t turn away from the sight, maybe couldn’t stop staring in pure horror.  
Peter started to cry, sobbing louder now, until something made him jerk up. On screen, all viewers could see a tiny movement in the woman’s swollen stomach.  
Uttering a small scream, Peter surged forward and suddenly there was a shiny silver dagger in his hand, probably this was given to everyone on the team, mutant powers or no. Wade knew they all got a basic med kit, so maybe this was part of it.

Several groans and horrified gasps were heard when a red gloved hand held the woman’s belly, then the knife sliced over the round swelling, the shiny red cut blurred out in the video. Peter panted louder, gasped like a dying man while he cut and cut, drenching himself in blood because he most likely didn’t want to cut too deep too fast.  
Then, with one last cut, a tiny hand was visible in all the blood. The knife clanked on the ground and Peter all but shoved both hands into the wound and pulled a struggling, blood soaked baby out of the womb.  
For a few seconds, there was complete silence.

Then, a weak, shaky cry was heard and the baby scrunched up its little face. Peter breathed out a big sigh and then huffed out a laugh, but it sounded creepy and hysterical.  
“Uh ... okay ... think ...,” Peter said slowly, still gasping for air, and the camera swiveled a little to the left and right, until he saw the edge of some kind of fabric peeking through from another big pile of debris. He ripped it off and wrapped the now screaming baby into it, then quickly cut the umbilical cord and sealed the wound with his webs. He also webbed the edges of the blanket around the baby, so that it was tucked in. That way, it soon fell silent again, maybe feeling better again now that it was warmer.  
“We’re ... we’re gonna go now ...,” Peter whispered and stood up, a piece of blanket barely visible at the bottom of the screen where he cradled the baby against his chest. “We’re going ... we need to get somewhere safe ... I’m so sorry ... I’m so very sorry ... goodbye.”

In the upper levels they saw Cap join Hawkeye as the two reached the room with the cages in it. They wanted to open the hatches, Cap eventually resulted to bending the metal bars with bare hands to get the hostages out. After several loud explosions, some kind of pipe or device burst in the back of the room, sending sparks and mist everywhere. A fire broke out, screams echoes through the packed room and eventually the mist - it must've been some kind of gas - was at such a high concentration that the resulting fire engulfed everything, forcing Hawkeye and Cap to retreat.

Wade stared at the screen, frozen in shock, around him there was discreet sniffling and the rustling of tissues.  
How could he have ever let Peter go on this mission?!  
There was no amount of money big enough to make up for this mistake Wade had made. It had been a mostly covert mission, but he would have found his way in, for fuck’s sake, Wade thought.  
He should’ve at least tried.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with a new chap for you! I'm thinking I might keep the Thursdays (at least it's Thursday here now XD) for uplpoading, so I can get it ready before work :D  
> Yay for finding schedules :P
> 
> Hope you like this chapter, see you next week, enjoy <3

The screen turned black and the lights in the room flared up again, when the SHIELD operative stood up in front of the small audience. After Peter’s scenes they’d watched how the other Avengers had tried to get the hostages out of other rooms but from about fifteen women only two survived, the others were crushed under debris or killed in the crossfire, leaving their rescuers devastated. Wade thought he might have seen one woman just drop dead to the floor while running, maybe her heart or something didn’t make it, they all looked severely malnourished.  
Also, some of them had obviously been pregnant as well.

“As you could see, the mission did not turn out how any of us would have assumed. We can’t give you any more details, since it’s classified intel. But I’m sure you understand why we called all of you here.  
Your colleagues and friends have gone through a lot during this mission, and some of them are not cleared to leave the premisses, due to the extensive stress. All of you were the emergency contact for one of our agents on this mission, and I must ask you to take very good care of your friends the next few weeks. Some of them need some psychological attention. Some medical. We just need you to make sure they get the help they needed, in case they can’t look out for themselves under the given stress.”

Another man strode to the front, from his crisp white shirt and a tag on it Wade could see it was a doctor. Immediately, a cold shiver ran down his back and all he wanted to do was run.  
Only the worries for Peter kept him in his seat, but on the very edge.  
“First of all, we would like to take some of you to the members of this operation who are still in medical care. Please follow me,” he said and proceeded to read names from a list.  
Wade tried not to grit his teeth when a _fucking doctor_ said his name, but he stood up and slowly left the room, fighting the urge to run.

Down the hallway, in front of some sealed double doors with an “authorized personell only” sign on it, the little crowd was met by several nurses. Each of them had to follow one of the ladies, so Wade was at least glad SHIELD seemed to have enough staff to assign each patient a nurse.  
If Peter had to stay in a medical bay, it better be a good one, Wade growled internally. 

 

The Merc felt his skin crawl as he walked through the narrow hallways, that smelled like desinfectant and everything he hated so much. But his Peter was here somewhere and he would rather die than go without him.  
“This room,” the nurse said and pointed to an unmarked door. She actually had to type in a code into a panel to let them in. Although she tried to block his sight by standing directly in front of it, Wade saw which numbers she typed from the movement of her fingers.  
Maybe they would need these later, a very paranoid, downright frightened part of his brain whispered.  
“He’s still medicated, so make sure you don’t work him up too much. It would be nice if you could assess his situation a bit, see if there’s anything unusual about his behaviour,” she explained and Wade just nodded when she stepped back. 

Slowly, Wade pushed down the doorhandle and entered, peeking around the door first. As he assumed, Peter was sleeping, turned on his side on the small hospital gurney, a blanket draped loosely over his body.  
There was a baby bed in the room, but it was empty. Curious as to where the baby had gone, Wade approached Peter’s bed. The young man had dark circles under his eyes, his features looked stressed and not as relaxed as usual when he was sleeping. His hair stood up in spikes, obviously someone had washed it.  
Well, he must’ve been drenched in blood, so that was maybe why his costume was also missing. 

In the crook of Peter’s arm, Wade saw an IV drip, which immediately made him shiver. He peeked around the IV bag to find out the drip contained a highly dosed mixture of tranquillizers, antidepressants and antibiotics.

What Wade saw in his boyfriend’s arm, however, startled him a little. It was the baby, sleeping peacefully next to Peter on that bed, not at all bothered by the protective hand Peter had placed on her stomach. Between them, Wade saw the shimmer of a single string of web, that Peter must have attached to her because he was afraid she could fall. 

Tentatively, as to not startle him too much, Wade placed his hand on top of Peter’s on the little girl’s stomach. She stirred and gurgled in her sleep, but didn’t wake up.  
Peter, on the other hand, jerked out of his sleep, but his eyes opened slowly. The pupils were big and his irises dark, so obviously drugged that Wade felt a sting in his heart.  
“Hi, sweetie,” he said softly, smiling despite his wish to rip Peter off this bed and hurry home with him, hide him from all that has happened. 

“Hiii ...” the young man drawled his tongue heavy, but at least he was responsive.  
“How do you feel?” Wade asked carefully, smiling when Peter patted his fingers on the little girl’s stomach. Wade turned quickly and got a chair to sit next to the gurney.  
“Gooooood. All good. Mmm’ssed ya.”  
“I missedya, too, webhead.”  
“When ... di’you get baaack?” Peter mumbled, rubbing his eyes with one hand and grimacing when he moved the IV needle in his arm.  
“Today. We wanted to meet, do you remember?” Wade slowly asked, wondering if he’d said too much.  
“Uh ... we ... have ... now.”  
“Yeah. You wanna sit up?”  
“Yesss,” Peter slurred and Wade carefully leaned over, helping the younger man sitting up. Actually Wade was hoping the sitting, and maybe later standing, would fire up Peter’s system a little, clearing his head up. And maybe making it easier to get him out of the building soon.

 

It was only now that Peter became aware of the baby next to him, his eyes growing wide when he looked at her sleeping face. Slowly, Peter picked her up and placed her in his lap, all the while managing not to disturb her sleep.  
Wade’s heart started pounding when Peter gasped, took two deep breaths and then began sobbing, bowing his head over the girl.  
“Petey, Petey ... don’t cry ... it’s all gonna be okay,” Wade said, unsure what else to say, surprised by the amount of tears. Peter wasn’t even wheezing like a hysteric person, but his eyes were simply overflowing, constantly pouring tears down his face.  
Wade frowned, because he knew what was going on.  
This wasn’t hysteria.  
This was deep sorrow and pain.

All Wade could do at the moment was to hold his lover, one hand on his shoulder and the other on his hand, which was still on the little girl. The young man leaned forward and placed his forehead on Wade’s shoulder, drenching the other man’s black and red suit front in tears. 

 

After a few minutes, Peter quieted down again, and Wade looked nervously at the IV drip. The bag would be empty in just a few seconds, and there was still no nurse to hear outside. Good thing he knew how to detach those things safely, because he doubted a nurse would make her way in here and disturb them.

“Peter,” he said seriously and for once the young man looked at him a little more attentive. His beautiful eyes were so swollen and and irritated red from the salty tears, that it physically hurt Wade to see him like this. “Do you want more medicine?”  
Peter followed his gaze to the IV stand, then, slowly, shook his head.  
“No ... I ... no ... please,” he replied whimpering and new wetness collected in his eyes.  
“Okay, okay, it’s all good. Don’t worry. I’m gonna take it off,” Wade promised.  
“Yes. Please,” 

There was a single locked cabinet in the room, and that flimsy lock was quickly picked, so that Wade could take out some gauze from the stash inside. Then the Merc straightened out Peter’s arm.  
“Hold still, just a moment.”  
As fast as he could without causing his lover too much pain, Wade pulled the long needle free and tossed it aside. He pressed the wad of gauze into the crook of Peter’s arm and held onto it tightly.  
“It’ll stop bleeding in a moment,” he mentioned softly, his voice wavering when he saw that there were new tears streaming down Peter’s face.  
“Okay.”

They sat in silence, Wade constantly pressing on Peter’s tiny wound. Every few seconds Peter’s eyes would wander to the baby, which ... Wade had to admit, she was damned cute.  
Looking like a little angel there with her sleeping face and chubby arms and everything.  
Despite all the circumstances, Wade was glad of Peter’s bravery to save the little girl.

“Do you ...,” Peter began slowly and looking in his eyes, Wade noticed his drug-induced haze must’ve cleared up a little. “Do you know ... what happened?”  
“Yes. Do you?”  
“Yes.”

Again, silence.

 

Footsteps passed by their door and Wade decided they stayed here long enough. Especially seeing how Peter’s eyes weren’t drying up anytime soon. Wade gently squeezed his lover’s fingers, drawing his attention again.  
“If you want, we can go home. Any time you want,” he said seriously and slowly, making sure Peter would understand.  
More and more tears. God, Wade wasn’t sure if he could handle this, it hurt so much to see Peter like this. But maybe this was his punishment for not insisting to go on that mission with him.  
The least the Merc could do right now was to be at his side.

 

“I ... I can’t,” Peter finally sobbed and drew a shivering breath, having long given up on wiping his cheeks.  
“Okay ... but you’re safe at home, you know. I won’t leave you alone, sweetie.”  
Even as Wade spoke, Peter started to slowly, then more forcefully shake his head, drawing his eyebrows together. Finally, he shot a quick glance at the little girl.  
“I can’t leave her here. I won’t.”  
“But, Petey-“  
“No. I’m not. Leaving. Her.”  
Wade had a hard time keeping an unimpressed face, but Peter’s almost snarling tone made him anxious. He’d just never seen him like this before - angry or grumpy, yes, but never this violently protective of something. But remembering the footage, Wade could at least understand this reaction. Still, from crying to being in that much contained rage was a pretty far jump.

“Alright, then. But ... what exactly do you plan to do with her, huh? With a baby? You know I don’t wanna be mean, but you gotta acknowledge that this baby needs a lotta stuff and care,” Wade said, trying to reason with Peter, hoping all the medication would keep his mind in order.  
But the young man just shook his head again, a hand gently placed on the little girl’s stomach.

“Wade, she isn’t ... she ... has powers. You know? She’s like us.”  
Wade stared at the little thing in his lover’s arms. “What do you mean?”  
“One ... of the other objectives of the mission ... was that maybe they used our blood to ... um ... _breed_. Altering babies or so. It was just an assumption, one possible outcome of many ... we never thought ... and then I saw the woman ... I knew it, Wade. I knew it, just by looking at her.”  
Wade took a deep breath, trying not to sigh. So this must be part of the classified information they weren’t given. What exactly was done with their DNA. And it was worse than anything Wade could have come up with on his own.  
Slowly, Wade took the tissue box from the cupboard, so he could dab at Peter's cheeks, hopefully finally stopping the tears. “When the little one has powers already, then she’s born a mutant, not like us,” he mentioned, doing his best so be gentle, but reasonable.  
“Yes, she is like us,” Peter insisted, his eyes now so crowded with terrible memories that Wade wanted to pull him into his arms and never let him go. “They experimented on her mother. Turned a human into a mutant, like they did with you. Her DNA was changed because of her mother’s, just like mine with the spider bite.”  
Wade did see the reason in that.

Peter looked down at the girl, then shook his head again, as if replying to his own thoughts.  
“I can’t let her go. I won’t. I don’t want her to grow up in some SHIELD facility, behind closed doors and barred windows,” the young hero said sternly and his words stirred up something in Wade.  
“Why do you think they would lock her away? How dangerous could she be? They couldn’t possibly have used some radiating or regenerating DNA, that’s why they didn’t attack me.”  
“But ... Wade ...,” Peter said, obviously trying to get his brain to work through the heavy drugs. Briefly, Wade wondered if they’d put something in the bag that wasn’t mentioned on it ... if they gave him some harder stuff just to keep him quiet.”Wade, she ... they don’t know what she could do one day. They don’t even know where she’s from, whose she is.”

For a moment, the Merc considered his lover’s words, than he carefully reached out. Slowly, to not wake her up, he took the hem of the little girl’s sleeve and rolled it up. There it was, a little band-aid probably covering the mark left behind by a needle.  
“They took some of her blood. Probably testing whose it is right now.”  
“They won’t let her go. Ever,” Peter whispered, all new tears streaming down his face.

Wade nodded slowly, a familiar shiver creeping up his back as he thought of the experimenting facility he was held in. When he imagined ... this tiny little thing in there, with the doctors and their machines and everything. It would be so easy for them to just whisk her of and do whatever they wanted, experimented further on her, because those bastards were unsatiable once they found an interesting subject.  
No.  
No, he would not let this happen.

The Merc, so experienced in killing and bringing death in hundreds of ways, slumped his shoulders and reached out to run a single finger over the girl’s cheek.  
His scarred, messed-up skin on her perfect face.  
His past visible on every inch of his body, resembling all the things that he never wanted to happen to something this innocent and beautiful. 

“You’re right. She can’t stay here. We’ll have to get her out of here,” he said quietly, promising to himself that he would do whatever it took to keep this girl away from all harm those doctors could mean.  
Wade realized, that if he was ever going to do something truly good in his life – maybe as some kind of thanks for all the perfectness Peter brought into his life – then this little girl would be his chance. 

It was a quick decision, maybe too quick, maybe it was downright stupid. But it was the good, the right thing to do. 

There was just one more challenge presented to them: walking out of a SHIELD facility with a baby that wasn’t theirs. And most likely a mutant.  
Well, challenge very much accepted, Wade thought.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! :D Thanks for stopping by for another chapter, I'm pretty sure we'll keep up Thursdays for posting ;)
> 
> Also, I realize that this chapter might be a bit confusing, but that's how it's supposed to be for Wade and Peter, too. Things will start to unravel a little in the next few chapters, so just stay tuned pls <3
> 
> Enjoy <3

Peter smiled after hearing Wade’s words. It didn’t quite change the sad look of his eyes, but at least it was a start, Wade thought.  
Incredibly enough a nurse did make her way to them, looking faintly surprised at the detached IV drip, before placing a bottle on the stretcher. An actual baby-feeding-bottle with that nipple-shaped rubber thing on top.  
“Mr. Parker, how about another IV? It’ll help you,” she said sternly, glowering at Wade, but Peter shook his head.  
“No, thanks.”

She puffed her cheeks, but didn’t say anything, just reached for the baby.  
“I would like to feed her, we’ll be right back.”  
“No.”  
Both the nurse and Wade stared at Peter in surprise. He sounded like he would blow up the whole block the second she touched the child.  
“I will feed her, no need to take her anywhere.”  
“Yeah, yeah, we totally got this,” Wade quickly interjected, taking the bottle and trying to look confident. Wade himself didn’t doubt that the nurse could just not return with the baby, but he still wished that Peter hadn’t been so angry. They needed to keep it down for another while.

The nurse scowled, but left the room in brisk strides. Apparently, she didn’t like being told off like that, but then again, she probably had orders not to anger Peter. At the door, she turned around, now all professional smiles again.  
“Your suit is at the laundry service, Mr. Parker. I will bring it back to you as soon as possible,” she explained and grabbed a pile of folded clothes from a little trolley she must’ve been pulling along the hallway.  
She placed them onto the stretcher a bit too harshly and Peter thanked her quietly. 

After she’d left, Peter unfolded the stack with one hand and reveiled a pair of boxer shorts, a pair of long, black sweatpants and a grey shirt with SHIELD written on the tag on the inside. Up until now, Peter had been sitting there in a hospital gown, but now he shivered and new tears welled up in his eyes.  
Wade surpressed a sigh, but he knew well enough how the younger man must feel. After an incident like that, even the smallest kindnesses felt like the world.  
“C’mon, let me help you,” Wade murmured softly, chiding himself mentally for not bringing any clothes for Peter. Then again, he didn’t know that the younger man would need them.  
Peter nodded slowly, then finally – after another reassuring glance at the closed door – placed the little girl on the stretcher. A string of webbing glittered in the artificial light of the room, holding her in place.  
Wade carefully unwound the gown from Peter, then dressed him like an oversized puppet, instructing him with a gentle voice whenever he needed to shift.  
“Now the shirt,” he said quietly and Peter lifted his arms, let Wade slip the shirt over his head and tuck the sleeves and the hem down.  
“All done, SHIELD can really be happy they have you to model their clothes so perfectly.”

At least his little joke earned him another smirk from Peter, which Wade accounted as a win for himself. 

 

Now fully dressed again, Peter shoved the blanket aside and picked the baby up again, then the bottle. He nudged the girls mouth with the nipple-shaped rubber thing of the bottle and she began to wriggle around a bit.  
“D’you think she’s hungry? I mean, she’s all sleeping soundly ‘n stuff.”  
“She hasn’t had anything, yet. I guess it doesn’t matter if she’s hungry or not, she needs it,” Peter answered, his voice low and so at level, so stripped of any emotion, that it irked Wade to hear. The young hero was just looking at a baby – a really cute one, as well – that he’d also saved, but there was just nothing in his features or voice.  
The Merc ground his teeth, he knew the signs when he saw them.  
His Spidey was in shock and it was just a matter of time for him to snap. 

And when that happened, Wade was sure as hell he wouldn’t let it happen on SHIELD grounds. They needed to get out of here. 

In Peter’s arms, the little girl opened her eyes just a tiny bit, then her mouth wide and sucked the rubber thingy in. She began drinking, which seriously made the weirdest and cutest little noises Wade had ever heard. 

“So ...” the Merc began in a low voice, not assuming they were monitored so closely, but also not wanting to take chances. “How are we gonna get out?”  
“I’ll just go. They can’t shoot me down or anything,” Peter answered levelly as ever and a cold shiver ran down Wade’s spine. They might not use real bullets, but the Merc didn’t doubt that much that the agents wouldn’t use some kind of shooting device to get stray heroes under control. He was sure they kept a whole stash of tranquilizer darts around for all kinds of mutated people. 

“I’ll give you cover,” Wade promised, his mind racing already. Of course he knew where all the ventilation shafts of this building were – he would never even set a foot into a SHIELD facility if he didn’t know.  
They could make it to three possible exits without being seen, if they were careful enough and just a little lucky. Peter could just web the baby to his chest or something and then they’d crawl out through the side and use his webs to get far away fast. 

 

“Well, look who’s drinkin’ like a champ,” Wade praised when he saw how quickly the bottle got drained. She was really into that stuff, whatever it was in there.  
“Yeah. That’s good. She needs it,” Peter mumbled, his voice slurring just a little bit at the end, and Wade could guess that it wouldn’t take long anymore for the younger man to either go berserk or pass out again. 

So after the bottle was empty and the girl had burped, Wade urged them to get ready, wrapping the baby up in the pink blanket from the crib.  
“Oh, look, she seems to like that. You like that, huh?” he asked when he saw how her eyes got heavy and finally closed again, all wrapped up and cozy in her blanket. “I call it: Wilson’s Baby Burrito. Patent pending.”  
Again, Peter showed him a small smile, but still looked like he might pass out any minute now.  
“Do you know where your other things are?” Wade asked and quietly tried the door – it opened without a sound.  
“In the locker rooms one floor up. Number 18.”  
“I’ll get your things, you just keep a low profile until I’m back,” Wade said and was out of the door and down the hall in seconds. He’s had his fair share in having to make a quiet exit, so he quickly followed the faint smell of desinfectant and cleaning supplies to the staff only hallways. Everything was a little less open and bright, but Wade found his way to the staircases which led him to the upper floor.  
It took him only minutes to locate the locker rooms and pick the lock on number 18 to get to Peter’s backpack.  
On his way back down, Wade had even more luck because there was a trolley with fresh laundry waiting for pickup in the hallway. The Merc could make out several superhero costumes, among them the red and blue one he was looking for. 

“There ... we go ...” Wade mumbled in concentration and snatched the costume from the trolley with freshly washed clothing, stuffing it into Peter’s backpack. He was basically running on his tiptoes back to the infirmary and Peter’s room, avoiding the security cameras wherever he could.  
“Got everything,” he hissed as soon as he was through the door, and saw with satisfaction that Peter had already webbed the little girl to his chest, but was still cradling her in his arms so she would be warm.  
”Let’s go,” the younger man replied, obviously trying to concentrate through the haze of his shock and the leftover medications in his system. Wade hoped insistently that Peter would make it home, where he could be safe and secure. 

 

Well, he should have known. There was no way you could fully trust SHIELD, whether it was with protecting someone (in which they failed as of recent example) or trusting them in that they wouldn’t notice two people leaving without permission but with a baby.  
They were just around the corner from one of the airvents when they were met with a whole group of SHIELD agents and heavily armed security personell.  
Peter gasped and swayed on his feet, so Wade grabbed his arm hard to keep him steady.  
“All good, I gotcha,” he promised darkly, for a moment thinking about just shooting those goons in front of them to a heap and run through. Then he saw the baby wiggle around in Peter’s arms and his shoulders sank.  
No, he couldn’t risk her safety. Also ... she should never ever again be present when something violent happened. He wouldn’t let this happen.  
“So, what do you want?” Wade asked, growling and nonetheless putting one hand on the handle of his katana threateningly. 

“Mr. Wilson. Mr. Parker,” one of them said and stepped forward. “I’m Agent Trace. And I’m afraid we can’t let you leave just yet.”  
“Why.”  
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement from Wade, a challenge for the Agent to stand up to him and really try to hold them up.  
“Because you have something that is considered a piece of evidence and is issued to stay under maximum security containment.”

Wade assessed the agent, from his dark buzz cut hair to his shiny boots (that undoubtedly hid at least one knife – possibly a stun gun).  
“And what exactly do you propose we do now?” Wade asked carefully, which was so not his style. Well, it was also not his style to have his drugged boyfriend and a baby in the line of fire, so he would have to go a little out of his way.  
“I suggest you come with us now and we discuss further proceedings. I get it that you and Mr. Parker would like to leave as soon as possible, but out supervisors may have something to say against that.”

“And what if we don’t cooperate?”  
Peter’s even voice had a cold shiver of dread run down Wade’s spine. Goddamnit, he was so out of it, he’d get himself injured if not killed.  
“We will have to contain you both. Trust us, we can handle you. Still, I would advise you to come with us.”

The Merc grit his teeth and placed an arm around Peter’s waist.  
“Then let’s go,” he murmured, seemingly letting off their fight. In reality he was hoping by getting further up to the meeting rooms they’d have even more ways of making their way out. Then they might be forced to go undercover for a while, but it wasn’t like Wade hadn’t got his places to stay in need. 

They were literally escorted like criminals, two armed men to either side of them, another four behind them and three in front of them with Agent whats-his-face leading their little troup. 

 

After a trip in the elevator, they arrived in front of a glass door and the goon in front of them paused a moment and listened. 

Through the door, Wade heard loud voices, talking over one another in angry tones. Agent Whatever stepped in a second later and they all trailed after him like ducklings. 

To his surprise, Wade saw that some of the Avengers were already in a heated discussion with a SHIELD guy, maybe even the lead operative of this headquarter. Captain America was there, leaning on the table with both arms, looking angry and ready to charge while Tony Stark sat in one of the chairs in aparent relaxation. Even Bruce Banner was in the room.  
All eyes went to them and Wade instinctively stood in front of Peter and the baby. One of the Agents piped up.

“Sir, Mr. Parker and Mr. Wilson just intended to leave the property. With the subject.”  
_Subject._  
Wade’s blood began to boil when he heard that guy talk about a baby like that. Like she was some kind of cargo, a thing to be studied and examined, not a human being. 

“Please, take a seat,” a guy at the head of the long conference table said and gestured to some of the remaining sleek metal chairs.  
Peter huffed out a barely audible breath through his nose, maybe surpressing a tired sigh. By now, the baby was sleeping soundly again in some kind of milk-induced coma. Seriously though, she was out like a light, even her arm slipped from her side and dangled around until Peter sat down and arranged her in his lap. 

Wade plopped down on the chair next to Peter, not even making the slightest effort in concealing his weapons. It wasn’t like anybody would dare confiscate them so he might as well flaunt it. He eyed the guy in the expensive looking grey suit carefully, noting how one of his hands was in his pockets and the other hidden behind a chair. He wasn’t sitting, so Wade assumed he was either scared shitless or at least very nervous and tried to distract from it. 

Now he squared his shoulders and quickly introduced himself as Hansen or Hanson or Han Solo or whatever, Wade really didn’t need to keep this in his mind. 

“We can’t let you take her out of this building. We will have to contain her until she can be brought to a high-security facility. There we can watch her progress and find out just how dangerous she is,” he sad right away, hitting just the wrong spot and making Wade wish he could just whip out a gun.  
”Dangerous? She’s a fuckin’ baby!” Wade yelled, furious now with this talk of containment and whatnot for such a little thing.  
“That doesn’t-”  
“You can’t just imprison a baby for being born,” the Captain said sternly and looked the SHIELD personell straight in the eyes. Wade guessed that this argument must’ve gone on for quite a while.  
“There is no need to ‘contain’ her, not at this age and not when she has two capable people offering to take care of her.”  
“But, Captain Rogers – “  
“He’s right,” Bruce Banner, otherwise known as the Hulk, chimed in. He stood up and Wade could see the suits tense up, obviously scared shitless that they’d have a green giant smack them around within the next few minutes. 

“She won’t be out of the world ...,” Peter mumbled suddenly, all the while looking down at the baby. He sounded tired and didn’t react any further when all eyes in the room trained on him. No doubt he could sense it, though. 

The operative stood there in silence a few seconds, then his eyes went icy.  
“We took a blood sample of her as soon as she was brought in and we still couldn’t match it with any of our data. We don’t know who’s DNA was used to create her and we don’t know what she could do.”  
“Still, how much harm could she do? At her age? And also, we all know that there is a very capable school for mutants more or less around the corner, probably ready to assist us if need be” the Captain said, but the SHIELD guy shook his head, still a stern impression on his face.  
“Hey, wait a minute,” Wade now chimed in. “If you guys don’t have a match for her in the database, then doesn’t that mean that her parent or whatever isn’t registered? Like, on your index.”  
“That’s exactly what it means, Mr. Wilson,” Han Solo said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.  
“So HYDRA is finding special people on their own just to take their DNA and ... breed,” Dr. Banner said and all of the Agents in the room rolled their eyes, obviously disapproving of dishing out intel like that.  
“Then this is not the only facility out there,” the Captain growled, now standing up straight, taking all the attention in the room. “We have to stop them.”  
“Yeah. I suspect they swapped their subjects, e.g. the pregnant women. It may be so few that actually get far enough along, that they won’t risk them staying in one place too long,” Banner mentioned.  
“Then we’ll eliminate one base after the other until there’s nowhere left to hide for them.”  
“Just chill for a second there, Cap, betcha got some experience with that,” Stark now quipped, earning rolled eyes from the Captain, and for a moment Wade thought he could see the SHIELD guys get grey hairs just from listening to them and seeing all their authority slowly float away.

“Gentlemen,” the Agent in charge drew the attention back to himself. “I think we strayed from the topic: the subject stays with us.”  
“Say subject one more time, I swear to god,” Wade muttered under his breath, but Banner cut him off with a gesture.  
“You said you checked her DNA for matching relatives, but what you didn’t check was how her DNA had even changed.”  
“That-“  
“No, let me finish,” Banner interrupted, now pushing his glasses higher up on his nose.  
”How did you even get a hold of any sample?” the operative asked, voice now a little shrieky. No doubt he hated that it got more and more clear who was the bigger players in the room. 

“Hacked,” Stark answered with a grin that made a vein appear in the operative’s forehead.  
“As I was saying ...” Banner started again. “You didn’t even look closer at her DNA changes, so I took this task upon myself. And I can assure you - with some help from your databank and some of our non-human allies’ information – that this baby is very unlikely to pose any threat anytime soon. She has a special marker that indicates her talents will take some time to develop fully, maybe even as late as six or seven years from now, maybe even later. And on top of that, she doesn’t even come close to the most powerful mutations, it might not be anything that could be weaponized.”

There was silence in the room for a while, and Wade saw the guys behind them exchange uneasy looks. He was pretty glad the Avengers seemed to be on their side. 

 

“Let’s talk some business here,” Stark said and got up from his chair, looking directly at the SHIELD operative. “These two will take the baby home for now, take care of her and get her to learn some social skills. Because I doubt she learns those in one of your labs – and it’s proven that people with powers control them better when having a stable social environment – you know that, don’t even begin to argue about that with me or I’ll call Xavier in here right now.”  
Wade could see another vein rise in the Han-whatever guy’s neck. Hopefully he didn’t explode. 

The Merc had no doubt that both the Avengers’ leaders had seen all footage from the operation, Captain America himself was even present on the ground. They saw where the baby came from any probably were on the same page as Wade – she should never see a lab of any kind ever again.

“In turn for them taking care of the child, they could come here for check ins every now and then to ensure she’s okay.”  
For a moment, all Agents just stood there, baffled by the rush of words, then the lead operative cleared his throat, looking ready to blow a gasket.  
“But, Mr. Stark – “  
“Or she could come over to the Avengers Tower where my medical teams will take care of her. Oh and I guess you don’t want some brand new machinery curtesy StarkMedical for the infirmary? Well, you could have said so, then I’ll get it donated somewhere.”

There was a brief but tense silence when the SHIELD operative and Stark had a staring contest. It was the billionaire who finally smirked, but never broke eye-contact.  
“May I also remind you that at the time of the incident, Mr. Parker here was part of The Avengers special unit, therefore his actions are under our supervision. So if this baby is any kind of subject, it’s ours. Technically, Captain Rogers and I call the shots on this one anyways.”  
More staring ensued. 

Wade guessed that Stark was right, and he might really have a whole lot of leverage there, since SHIELD couldn’t just call any other superhero team for such covert and specialized operations; there was nobody better than The Avengers and their vast array of members. Also, most heroes rather listened to and operated under The Avengers than under SHIELD, because let’s face it, they all had major trust issues.  
“I guess ... then we will have to let them go, don’t we?” the operative growled and Stark grinned.  
“Very good decision.”  
“But, Mr. Stark,” he said and all eyes were on him again, most likely everyone was expecting some kind of threat to the Avengers. “Since you mentioned it, all costs resulting from Mr. Parker’s decision will of course be settled by you.”  
To that, Stark only rolled his eyes.  
“I don’t even comment on that, since it would insult my bank accounts. – Also, give those two some of the documents I just hijacked from your drive,” he said with a grin to the operative, who looked about ready to have a stroke. Instead, he just nodded with his lips pressed together.

 

Everybody started to get up and move, but the Hanson guy held up a hand to stop them.  
“We will of course provide some neccessities for the first few days. If you please check in with the infirmary again, they will have something prepared for you,” he said, sounding like he’d just lost thousands of dollars in a poker game. Well, not that inaccurate, given what Wade knew people like him could do with a potential mutant to experiment on.  
It didn’t come as a surprise to him that SHIELD still agreed to provide them with doctor’s of their own, since they were most likely interested in keeping them at least a little tied to the organization.

 

Peter’s steps got heavier and heavier the longer they stayed, but Wade couldn’t help it. They were even separated again while Peter and the baby were seen one last time by a doctor and given some things like diapers and stuff for her.  
Wade waited on the hallway when a blonde haired doctor came right up to him. She looked him straight in the eyes, extending a hand as to shake his, and for a moment he was grabbed by panic so hard that he thought about making a run for it.  
Then he remembered Peter and the baby and forces his feet to stay glued to the ground.  
Oh God, her white robe was unsettling, he felt like throwing up. At least most of the other personell was kind enough to just wear white shirts and pants. But she was in actual doctor’s attire.  
“Mr. Wilson? I’m Dr. Dearing.”  
“Hi,” Wade muttered but hooked the fingers of both hands into his belt, giving the clear image that he wasn’t one for shaking hands. With a doctor.  
God, how long did it take for Peter and the little one to come outta there?!  
“Mr. Wilson, I would like to talk to you for a moment,” she said and smiled gently, seemingly not affected by his lack of manners at all. But then again, she was a doctor and those people were sneaky as fuck.  
“Sure. I’ll stay right here and try to listen,” Wade grumbled and wondered if SHIELD had planned to confront him with a doctor to distract or frighten him. Well, whatever they had in store for him, he wouldn’t let his eyes off that door for a second.  
Again, she just smiled. Weirded him out, that lady.  
“Well then, I would like to give you a bit of advice for the next few days regarding Mr. Parker and the baby. Also, you will need to choose a name for her and then fill this in,” she said calmly and handed him a small stack of papers.  
Wade looked at them cautiously, his mind running wild with thoughts about some kind of poison or tranquillizer or something that could be transmitted only through skin contact. Then he realized she was handing it to him with bare hands.  
“Will do,” he quickly said and snatched the documents from her without reading them, careful to leave a big gap between their hands. 

“You will have to be very careful around Mr. Parker for the next few days. He might not seem like it, but the shock from this mission will weigh on him, and at some point he will have to release the pressure, maybe through crying or yelling or breaking something. He will definitely show signs of anxiety-“  
”Yeah, I know that. I know him and I know when he freaks. So I think we’ll be good. I keep an eye on him and the little one.”  
She didn’t seem phased by him interrupting, she just nodded and looked at her clipboard for a moment.  
“Should you need any more advice or should your ... should the baby be sick, please give me a call, at any time. Do not go to a regular hospital with her or Mr. Parker.”  
Wade looked her in the eyes, searching for bad intentions, but he only found honesty.  
“Will do,” he said again and glanced quickly at the door.  
“I will also be your pediatrician and liaison with SHIELD, so please, whatever it might be, give me a call. And also, there will be schedules meetings here for the three of you.”  
“I have to come back again?!” Wade shouted, forgetting for a moment that he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. She smiled again, but it looked wry.  
“Yes. The baby will receive all possible medical care, shots and check-ups from me, and I will check in with other doctors under SHIELD to see that she gets the best care available. The same goes for you and Mr. Parker. You won’t be left alone with this, once you sign the papers ... I believe Mr. Stark had his hand in speeding up proceedings.”

Damn, now he wished he’d at least scanned over the documents quickly, but whatever. Couldn’t be helped. Maybe it was best he’d read it at home and in peace, anyways. 

Before Wade had to talk to her any longer, the door opened and Peter stepped out, looking ... drugged.  
Rage flared up in Wade’s blood, but he told himself that this was probably for the better. At least the younger man would make it home and maybe get some sleep soon. He carried a kind of bag with the baby in it, then another bag over his shoulder that looked heavy. Wade immediately grabbed it from him.  
“How’s everything?” he asked quietly, but Peter just hummed, maybe not able to talk anymore. Fuck, he wanted to get out of here, fast.  
”There’s a car waiting for you in front of the main entrance, our driver will take you home,” a nurse, that looked a bit more trustworthy – because she was older and kind of reminded him of the actresses from _Golden Girls_ , said and walked them to the elevator.  
“There’s formula and everything you need for the little one in the bag. It’ll get you over the first few days, there’s also some paperwork inside, and some instructions for taking care of her.”  
“Thanks,” Wade said, meaning it this time, because he knew absolutely nothing about babies, other than that they sucked on boobies all the time and pooped their pants.  
What a life, actually.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super late update, but the day just wouldn't let me go online D:
> 
> Now finally the next chap with our two fave heroes, and we will get to know just why the Avengers behaved so weird. 
> 
> Enjoy <3

And just like that Peter, Wade and the baby found themselves in the hallway of their apartment building. Peter was still quiet, but some color had returned to his cheeks.  
Wade had instructed the driver to stop a block from their actual location, because he didn’t want any of SHIELD personell to know the exact location of their house. He knew neither of them would bring it up ever, not the neighborhood and definitely not the exact adress, and Wade wanted to keep it that way.  
After a quick trip in the elevator, they were finally home. 

 

With heavy steps Peter wandered into their apartment, and slumped down into a heap on the sofa after pulling the baby into his arms. He looked so terribly tired that Wade immediately thought of where they could put the baby to sleep so Peter could rest as well.  
For starters all the older man could do was wrap a soft blanket around Peter’s shoulders and make him some tea.  
“You tell me if you need anything else, alright?” he asked, slowly removing Peter’s shoes and wrapping the edge of the blanket over his feet.  
He hummed in agreement and seemed a lot more content and relaxed now that they were home. To show him just how safe they were, Wade turned on the alarm system in their apartment.  
He knew Peter’s eyes were following him and he hoped that would calm him a bit more. 

Now that all the doctors were far away and he had some quiet time to think about it, Wade realized how rash all those decisions had been.  
But why?  
Just like Stark said, Peter was operating under the Avengers, so they could’ve taken the baby with them. Wade would maybe even have been content with that, because he trusted the Avengers, most of them had some experimentation done to them at some point in time, and knew how bad it was. And as long as SHIELD's nasty hands were off the baby, he was fine with it. So why the hurry? Why was two guys taking the baby to their private home safer then it staying in a literall tower full of heroes?  
Something was going on, and Wade had a very bad feeling about it.  
If he was really honest to himself – and if he wasn’t, the voices always were –  
**Dude, this was a stupid decision.**  
_Yeah._  
**We’re gonna kill that thing eventually, we should’ve given her away and left with just Petey.**  
“Shut up,” the Merc muttered darkly, refusing to think of leaving the baby anywhere. Something was happening in the dark, something that had the Avengers’ leaders agree and push for them to take her home, where they knew Wade would fight for her if need be. 

There was clearly something or someone close they didn’t trust.

Peter interrupted his grim thoughts with his calm, tired voice.  
“You know, she doesn’t even have a name,” Peter mumbled, and it was the first time that Wade had heard him say anything the past few hours. This misson had taken it’s toll on the young hero, and would probably weigh heavily on his mind for a long time.  
“So you wanna choose one?” Wade asked, while unpacking the contents of the baby’s bag, making a little arrangement out of it on the kitchen island.  
They had a whole stack fo diapers, some cloth things and onesies, socks and a fluffy blanket, and some soft hats. Then two huge cans of baby formula and a toiletries bag for her with lots of cremes and things.  
Also, some papers describing when and how much she had to eat – well, drink, actually – and that they should write everything down, from how much she ate to when she fell asleep and woke up. 

“Yeah. We have to. But what should we call her?” Wade mused, picking up a bottle and flipping his finger playfully over the rubber nipple thing. 

The two men thought about the question for a few silent minutes. Then, Peter leaned back against the sofa, his features visibly relaxing - _finally_ , Wade thought. 

Peter looked at the girl, his gaze so soft, and kissed her head. Then he turned to Wade again, speaking with a gentle, loving voice.  
“Let’s call her Beatrice.”

Wade’s heart skipped a beat and he had to double take just to make sure he heard right.  
“Yeah. Beatrice. Bea for short,” Peter explained. Slowly, Wade walked over to the sofa, kneeling in front of it so that he could see the little girl’s round face.  
“Petey, really?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Hey ... hey little Bea ... wow, that’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me, Petey. And I’ve seen pretty cool stuff.”  
“I know,” the younger man breathed and a corner of his mouth twitched into just the hint of a smile. He watched as Wade’s scarred hand, huge in comparison, closed around Bea’s. The name they chose was just perfect. Peter chose to give her the name of Wade’s favourite actress from _Golden Girls_ , Bea Arthur.  
“And you got the best name in the whole world, little Bea. You’re gonna be such a badass when you grow up – ah, scratch that, you’re a badass already!” Wade cooed, his voice unusually soft.

Despite the lovely scene, Peter was beginning to feel heavy and tired again. The nurse at SHIELD had given him two shots that switched off his brain for a while, but now they seemed to wear off and his system felt overloaded.  
He just wanted to sleep but on the other hand, his senses were still on high alert, wanting to protect the baby even though there were so safe here. Not just with the security system on, but also with Wade and all his weapons here.  
Peter was tired, so so tired, but at the same time he felt like it would take him a long time to fall asleep, so he told Wade no when the Merc asked if he wanted to go to bed. 

 

Their first hours together were a bit chaotic.  
It turned out neither of them had ever changed a diaper, so when Bea began screaming loudly, it was trial and error time.  
“You go first,“ Wade said quietly, eyes wide at the extreme noise this little girl could produce. He felt bad for chickening out on that, especially since he knew – and saw – what Peter had done to get her into the world.  
Still, the younger man just shrugged and threw a blanket on the floor, then began undressing Bea.  
“Can't be that hard, I guess. Hand me a diaper and her little bag?“  
Wade hurried to comply, guiltily wanting to help at least a little bit. 

Surprisingly, Bea fell silent once the dirty diaper was off her butt, watching Peter intently as he cleaned her up and fumbled with the new one. It took a while and some prompting from Wade's side, then they had the diaper on, and most likely the right way around.  
”Looks good. Gonna have a nice dry booty, Bea!“

Peter’s mouth twitched with the hint of a smile, but Wade knew it would still take some time for him to laugh again. Those two had been through a lot, so Wade would just continue to make stupid jokes until Peter was ready to show him those twinkling eyes and happy smile again.

“She's gonna need a bottle, soon. I better look up how to mix the formula,“ he explained, voice a little too even for Wade's liking.  
“Nu-uh, you just lay back a little and cuddle with that cutie-bear over there. I'll take on the feeding. Also, I wanna know what it tastes like.“  
Again, he managed to make Peter smirk for just a second.  
“Okay,“ the younger man answered, dressing Bea again and then picking her up to place her on his shoulder. The girl gurgled softly and snuggled up to him, one tiny hand on Peter's collarbone. 

 

Over in the kitchen, Wade opened a huge tub of baby formula powder. He read the discriptions on the back carefully and measured the amount of powder even more careful. Not a single gramme too much or too less got into the bottle on his watch, and he surprised himself with that.  
With the thought of wanting the exact best for this little girl.  
Yeah, he would make sure her and Peter could be happy in the future.

 

The powder went into the bottle, along with water and then he shook it like crazy to mix. He put on the kettle and set the bottle in a pot with the hot water, so that it could heat up the milk a little, just like the instructions on the box said. 

Bea piped up again, uttering a few uncomfortable noises, then full on crying again.  
“Almost there, little one!“ Wade answered, glad that Peter slowly rocked her so that she wouldn't get too frustrated.  
Snatching the bottle right out of the hot water, Wade wrapped it up in a kitchen towel and rushed over to Peter.  
”Here, try that on your wrist or something, that's what they do on TV!“ he advised, but couldn't do this himself, because he didn't trust his fucked-up skin to find out the right temperature.  
Bea wailed when Peter had to stop rocking her to test the bottle.  
She got even louder but the moment Peter held the rubber nipple to her lips she fell silent and then opened her toothless mouth. 

 

Wade found himself entranced by watching Bea drink. She looked so relaxed and those little suckling noises were probably the cutest thing he'd ever heard. 

With her speed, it would take quite a while for her to finish the milk, maybe about 30 minutes. Wade glanced up at Peter and saw that his eyelids drooped already. They didn’t talk, just watched the baby and took time for their own thoughts.  
Wade sensed that Peter was glad for the silence. He probably had a lot to work out with himself, and Wade knew he would talk when he felt the need to. Until then, the Merc would just try not to bother him too much and be patient. 

 

A while later Bea had finished her meal and looked like she was drunk, which was just great. She was so damn cute and had this blissed out look on her little face.  
Wade couldn’t hide a grin; this was priceless.  
He actually, secretly loved to be around Bea, because he did like kids, they just never liked him, were too scared by his appearance. 

Peter carefully moved Bea up to his shoulder and patted her back a little awkwardly until she burped. And spit some of her milk back out and on Peter’s shirt. He sighed, but didn’t seem to mind otherwise. “We should put her to bed, soon,” Wade mentioned and hoped Peter would be tired now, but the younger man just looked at him with an expressionless face, only his eyes showed a deep, surpressed fear. 

“Wade, we have to ... get all kinds of things for her. I ... God, I don’t even know ...”  
“Hey, sweetie, calm down,” Wade instructed softly and stroked over Peter’s tense shoulders as the younger man closed his eyes in distress. He was clearly still affected by what had happened to him, so Wade awkwardly reached out to take little Bea into his arms.  
The Merc felt weird even touching this perfect baby, and it looked really out of place in his arms. But at the same time it felt ... good, holding her. At least he felt honored that he was allowed to take care of something so pure and beautiful.  
“How about you take a nice hot shower and then go to bed, sleep a little,” he proposed, hoping that hot water would get some more tension out of Peter’s body and make him sleepy.  
“But what if she ...”  
“I’m gonna take care of her, no worries. If something happens, I’ll wake you,” Wade promised  
For a moment, Wade wondered if Peter had even heard him, because of the distant look in his eyes. Then the young hero nodded and got up, dragging his feet over to the bedroom and from there to the bathroom, where Wade soon heard the shower rush. 

Alone now with the baby, Wade let out a sigh, wondering if he should do more for Peter. But what was there to do?  
For now, he could just be there for him, and try to make him sleep and eat, and hope that he would be better soon. 

 

Since they didn’t even have a bed for her, yet, Wade just put Bea on a big pillow, which would be her matress. In one of the papers he read that they weren’t supposed to put a blanket on her, since she could tangle up in it and hurt herself. So he just put some wool socks and a shirt over her onesie, so that she wouldn’t be cold. 

While she laid there and just looked around, Wade searched for his phone and dialed a number he’d saved but never before used.  
_“Stark,”_ was the answer on the other end of the line.  
“This line secure?”  
_“Wilson, don’t insult me. Of course it is. I guess you got some questions?”_   
”Sure do. Why were you guys so insistant on us getting the baby?”  
Wade spoke quietly, hoping Peter wouldn’t wake up from his talking. Bea still wasn’t asleep.  
_“Look, there’s a lot more to this than we all thought,”_ Stark explained, and there was some clanking in the background, he was probably in his workshop. _“We have clear indications that this was a breeding facility, and not the only one. This has been going on for quite some time covertly, the attack on New York was just the last step.”_   
“To get the big names on their list,” Wade grumbled, feeling dread deep in his bones when he thought about the sample taken from Peter.  
_“Yeah.”_   
“Can we trust SHIELD?” Wade asked, because for him there was no way he would bring Bea there ever again if they couldn’t.  
_“Yes and no. They are on our side, but we both now how easy it is to infiltrate,”´_ Stark answered, followed by some whooshing of doors, so maybe he was changing rooms to talk. 

Wade contemplated the information for a while.  
“You want us to keep Bea? Protect her?”  
_“Bea?”_   
“Yeah, we should name her, the papers said so. And don’t even try to argue that this name is anything but awesome,” Wade quipped, looking at the little girl who was still awake. Wasn't she supposed to sleep a lot? He always thought babies slept a lot. Maybe she just needed some time to get sleepy.  
_“It’s awesome,”_ Stark said with some amusement. Then he sighed barely audible. _“Wilson ... You and Parker are the only ones we can trust with her, because for some reason they didn't target you with that attack. You're not on their list, so you're probably harder to track for them. But - can you keep her safe? I mean it, can you?”_   
“Of course,” Wade said right away, not even having to think about it. “Any clues to what could happen next?”  
“No idea, really. We hope to find the next base and tear it apart before they can join forces to go after ... Bea.”´   
Wade grit his teeth, looking at Bea again, promising to himself and to her that he would never let anyone hurt her.  
“When you go after them again, I’ll take Peter’s place,” the Merc said sternly, and expected to be put down. Well, he wasn’t the first choice anyways when it came to missions that involved hostiles, but ... he wouldn’t let Peter go into something like this ever again. Not after what he’d seen.  
_“I can’t just agree to that, but I’ll talk to Cap about it.”_   
“Good.”  
_“Call us if you need any help, we’ll arrange everything.”_   
”Thanks, man.”  
_“We have to thank you for playing along,”_ Stark said, now sounding amused again, but Wade didn’t feel like laughing.  
“It’s not playing. We’ll ... I mean, she’s safe here, really. We take care of her,” he promised, wanting the Avengers leader to know he was serious about this.  
_“I know,”_ the billionaire responded quickly and then had to end the call when something seemed to explode in the backgroud and he cursed. 

Left to his own devices again after the call ended abruptly, Wade decided he wouldn’t tell Peter about this call. Yet. The younger man needed to calm down first, to process what happened.

 

Wade cleaned up the room a bit, then sat down by the sofa, where Bea was still lying on her pillow. She met his gaze and Wade sighed when he thought just how crazy they were to do this. Part of him regretted it, deeply. But another part – maybe the bigger one – was glad that they’d gotten Bea. She would be safe here, he would personally take care of it. Hell, he'd done much weirder things for his jobs.

 

It was probably time for her to fall asleep already, but Wade found himself being stared at ten minutes later.  
“Little Bea, it’s time to go to sleep,” the Merc said sternly, but the baby just continued to look at him. “Cutie pie, don’t expect me to sing, you don’t even wanna hear that.”  
Bea still stared five minutes later, wiggling around in her makeshift bed.  
“Little Bea, I advise you to sleep now. You’re gonna be tired later.”

Another five minutes later, Wade had moved to resting one arm and his head on a pillow next to Bea, hoping the company would make her feel more secure.  
“You know, I might not be the best at singing, but I am good at talking. I’m just gonna tell you some important things, ‘kay? Next time, I may or may not have a nice fairytale prepared for you, but only if you don’t poop on me,” Wade said, grinning when Bea stretched out her little hand. A strong, scarred hand carefully closed around the tiny fingers.  
“Look, Bea. You need to learn some things super early in life: First of all, our Petey there is the best person ever. Like, ever. Don’t ever think there’s gonna be someone better, ‘cause there ain’t gonna be. So we need to take some care of him now, ‘cause he got a little banged up when he helped you. He needs some nice foods and sleeps and cuddles - we’re gonna have to take turns to give him as much of that as possible. Got it? Good.”  
By now, Bea was intently watching him, while holding one of his scarred fingers surprisingly tight in her little hand.  
“Second thing you need to know: you got the best name in the whole wide world. And maybe you’re gonna meet Auntie May soon, she’s wonderful, and you’re gonna love her, just like I do. And she can cook so good, as soon as you can have real people food, and not boobjuice, you have to try everything.”  
Bea’s lids began to droop a little, and her tiny mouth opened for a yawn. Wade grinned, glad nobody saw his stupid happy face right now, but she was just too damn cute.  
“And then you’re gonna stay as cool as you’re now, all cute ‘n stuff. We’re gonna get along fine, even if I really don’t know anything right now. I’m just gonna apologize now, ‘cause I need a lot of time learning new stuff. I’ll try my best, though, you can be sure ‘bout that.”  
He looked down again and found the little girl asleep, making a pouty face and probably dreaming of milk the way her lips were moving. Careful not to wake her up, Wade climbed slowly up onto the other side of the sofa, keeping one leg stretched out next to Bea so that she couldn’t roll off.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi you lovely, lovely person, you ;)  
> In today's chap, Wade has a little heart-to-heart with his voices and our two favourite heroes contemplate some important documents. 
> 
> Enjoy <3

At some point during the night, Wade woke up and looked around the sofa, wondering where little Bea had gone. His eyes wandered to her pillow and he jerked upright when he found it empty. Wade was at the bedroom door in an instant, ready to fight if someone hid in the dark.  
He hadn’t even heard the little one cry. Great, and what if Peter had to take over because he slept through everything like a stupid log? Wade grumbled and peeked into the bedroom, a dagger hidden at his side.

To the Merc’s utter shock, their big bed was also abandoned, no sign of Peter to be seen. The sheets were cold, but all still there, so Peter hadn’t taken some with him to sleep somewhere else.  
Cursing under his breath, Wade looked in the bathroom and their closet, even in the little room that housed their washer and dryer. 

 

Finally, back in the living room, he looked up to the ceiling – a very plausible thing when sharing the household with a spider-guy.  
And there they were, Peter and Bea.  
Wade’s shoulders sank and he almost sighed when he put the dagger away. 

The young man was sleeping on his back, held safely by a large round spiderweb. At first glance it looked as intricate and beautiful as ever, but Wade’s trained eye found some connecting strings missing or misplaced, making the whole web look a bit bizarre.  
On Peter’s stomach, secured with more webs to the ceiling, Wade could guess Bea was sleeping soundly wrapped up in her pink blanket. 

“Petey? Petey, wake up,” he carefully approached the duo from below, not wanting to startle his boyfriend. “Petey, you have to wake up.”  
He carefully measured the distance and stretched out his arms, ready to catch them if Peter jumped off or fell.  
“Mmmh,” came the only sleepy response from the web.  
“Peter,” Wade said sternly, but as quiet as possible. The hero jerked awake, his hands immediately wrapping possessively around Bea, who didn’t even utter a peep.  
”What?” he asked, sounding out of breath. 

”It’s okay, sweetie, I just want you to come down here with Bea. We can sleep in the bedroom together.”  
Wade had just remembered what the doctor had said about Peter maybe freaking out and yelling or breaking things. He definitely wanted Peter to stay calm and sleepy at least while he was up there.  
“Uh ... okay ... okay ...” Slowly, but as gracefull as ever, Peter slid down on a single string of webbing, cradling Bea with one hand against his chest.  
The moment Peter sat a foot on the floor, Bea stirred and began crying, struggling in her little burrito blanket.  
“Oh, don’t cry, cutie. I gotcha milk comin’ up so Petey can go to sleep again,” Wade cooed and reached out for Bea, taking her from Peter, who smiled a little dazed.  
He stood there for another few minutes, watching how Wade prepared a warm milk formula for Bea and fed it to her. At some time he slouched off to the bedroom again, leaving Wade to wonder if he had even been really awake in the first place. 

When Bea finished the bottle and burped – and spit up on Wade’s shoulder – the Merc went to the bedroom with her, the pillow she’d slept on tucked under his arm.  
They found Peter on his side of the bed, sleeping soundly again. This time he was curled up into a ball, both his arms in a death grip around Wade’s pillow. He looked suspiciously at the way Peter’s hands gripped the fabric hard, bunched it up.  
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go to bed with Bea, after all, Wade thought.  
So he just carefully placed a blanket over Peter and then went back to the living room to sleep on the couch. 

And he may or may not take advantage of not being seen and enjoyed the feeling of little Bea sleeping on his chest like she’d done with Peter. Overall she seemed happier sleeping with someone close, and Wade wondered how much of the past day she really knew.  
He really had no idea of babies, so she might as well be just as shocked as Peter was and craved human contact. Well, or mutant contact, for that matter, but Wade was more than happy to help.  
With her even closer now, his paranoid thoughts seemed to calm down and he settled into a light, but relaxed sleep easily. 

***************************************************************************

The next morning, Peter slept in super late, while Wade was on his third bottle with Bea. How anyone could drink that much milk was a mystery to him.  
Then again, she didn’t eat anything yet, so maybe it wasn’t that much.  
But despite being very tired and a bit grumpy from only sleeping in intervals, Wade had remembered to fill in the chart for feeding her very accurately. 

It was incredibly hard for him to concentrate on anything for so long, but he really wanted this for Bea, he had to get himself together. So he fought every little quip of the voices while he was around her, didn’t listen to anything they said or wanted to distract him with. 

 

And in the wee morning hours he decided that there wasn’t much use to sleeping again, so Wade got up and quietly took care of some household chores. He even grabbed his tablet, that Peter had given it to him last Christmas, and read up on some baby related stuff, so he didn’t make any mistakes while being alone with Bea.  
He really didn’t trust himself around her, so he tried his very best even if it gave him a massive headache. 

After yet another diaper change – that he was getting a little better at – Wade even began to flip through the paperwork from SHIELD. A confirming look to Bea told him that she would be sleeping for a while longer. And his research had told him that babies of her age actually did little more than sleep, eat and poop. And boy could she do the latter well. 

Trying to concentrate, which was a task for him, Wade started over with the papers and now read in earnest.  
The first few pages were a made up birth certificate for Bea, with the name left out. Wade clicked his tongue and got a pen, filling in her first name and grinning again when he saw it. This was pretty cool, naming a human.  
**Cooler than naming a dog. – Does she belong to us now?**  
_We didn’t really have luck with pets ..._  
“Oh shut it, you two. She’s amazing,” Wade chided the voices.  
**She’s super cool! Although she does poop all the time.**  
_And are we really okay to care for a baby?_  
If he could, Wade would have glared at the voices.  
“We will have to be, because otherwise SHIELD gets her. So no funny business when she’s around. You have to behave.”  
**But behaving is stupid! And boring!**  
_And we’re not old and rusty yet, so why stop being who we are?_  
Wade breathed out a sigh through his nose.  
“We have to. Don’t you understand? She’s our one chance.”  
_At what?_  
**Bein’ a daddy? We can be daddy in any strip club.**  
“No, you stupid assholes!” Wade hissed and glanced over at Bea, but she slept soundly. “She is our one chance at doing something good. We will protect her, because that is the one good thing we can do. Nobody helped us when those doctors came, but we can help her now, that she has never see these things.”

The voices were quiet for a long time.  
_They would hurt her?_  
**Like they hurt us?**  
“Maybe worse. Who knows.”  
_That can’t happen! We have to protect her!_  
“That’s what I’m saying!” Wade said and rolled his eyes at them. They were always so hard to convince of anything that didn’t have to do with making things explode. 

He continued to look through the paperwork, and found something that had both his and Peter’s data on it. Again he had to fill in Bea’s name, but the next paragraphs made him stop.  
He read it again.  
Then again.

And realized ... when signing these he and Peter would confirm to be Bea’s permanent caretakers, maybe even her adoptive parents sometime later.  
Now there was no doubt that Stark has had his hands in this. Wade was sure SHIELD would never give them something like this. And did they even know he had those papers?  
Stark mentioned he’d hacked into the servers to get them. And the operative was too scared to lose them and Bea to Stark completely, so he might not have checked. 

Stark wanted them to have Bea permanently. Because he thought she wasn’t safe enough anywhere else. 

 

Looking at the empty signature spaces again, Wade thought about this, about all it would mean. 

After just a few seconds, Wade knew what _he_ wanted to do, but he couldn’t decide this on his own. He had to ask Peter if that was really what he wanted as well, preferrably when he was not so protective or Bea anymore, because it might just have been from the mission and wear off in a while, along with Peter’s shock. 

Right on cue Peter’s voice sounded behind him.  
“What are you reading?” he asked whispering, because he probably saw Bea sleeping soundly on her pillow.  
“Uh, nothing, really, uhm – how are you feeling?” Wade wanted to distract him, but the moment he turned around Peter had already snatched the papers out of his hands. The SHIELD logo on those damn things couldn’t have been bigger, of course the hero immediately knew that this was about the baby. 

“A lot better, actually. But I do remember there are some pills I should take today and tomorrow,” Peter muttered and it was the most words that Wade has heard him say since they met at SHIELD the day before.  
“Well, I’m glad you’re better. Want breakfast?” he asked and did try to retrieve the paper, but Peter turned away, studying it intently. 

“I might still be sleepy, but ... are they saying we can ... _adopt_ Bea?”  
Shit. Wade looked at Peter’s face, but he was expressionless again, reading the documents quickly.  
“I guess so ... uh ... don’t you want some breakfast first? I’ll make anything you want,” Wade promised, hoping that could distract Peter from his thoughts. Not that easy, though.  
The young hero sighed and rubbed his face with one hand, while still holding the papers with the other.  
“And how in the world do they expect we decide this now? _Now_ of all times!”  
“Sweetie, please don’t worry about this now,” Wade said quickly, glancing at Bea again, but she was still out like a light. He would have to try this milk formula, seemed to be the best sleeping medicine there was.  
Wade got up and insisted that Peter gave him the papers, which he then put back into Bea’s bag. While he walked over to the kitchen, Peter glanced over the back of the sofa to the little girl, who was pursing her lips in her sleep.  
“She looks well. Was everything okay?”  
“Yup, she was a little angel. Poopin’, burpin’ angel.”  
Peter smirked, then turned to her bag to get a little cup of pills out. There were enough for maybe two days in there, and Peter took one of them out into the palm of his hand and straight up swallowed it.  
“Hey, you’re not supposed to take these on an empty stomach!” Wade chided, quickly getting some eggs and bacon out of the fridge.  
“Sorry,” Peter mumbled and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.  
He still looked out of it, his eyes seeming a bit unsteady, but he talked more and at least was a little more himself than the night before. Despite his hate for doctors, Wade hoped that the medication would help Peter to sleep some more, which seemed to be good for him. 

As soon as the bacon was sizzling in the pan and Wade whisked some eggs, Bea started crying again, but Peter picked her up right away.  
“She’s so beautiful, Wade,” he mumbled, smiling the tiniest smile when she calmed down in his arms.  
“Yeah, a total cutie. She’s gonna make all those kindergarten boys go crazy soon,” he joked, but it sounded a bit weird to him even, talking about her like she’d stay with them. 

“Do you .... want to sign?”

Wade looked up from the pan, stared at Peter, who just wiggled a binky into Bea’s mouth.  
“If I want?”  
“Yeah.”  
“What do you want?” Wade sidetracked, not sure if he was even able to talk about this. Or supposed to, for that matter, because he did remember that he had to be careful around Peter, not stress him too much.  
Peter, who was sitting at the kitchen island with Bea in his arms, looked down at the little girl. His gaze travelled miles away and from the quicker rising and falling of his chest Wade knew he was remembering the mission.  
“I want to keep her,” he simply said, voice emotionless as the day before, but Wade wasn’t as happy about this answer as he thought he would be. Stirring the eggs in the hot pan, he contemplated his next words for a minute.  
“She’s not a thing we can just keep, you know. She needs stuff. Attention, care.”  
Protection from whatever it was lurking out there searching for her. Wanting to drag her into the darkest labs. 

“And you think we can’t give her that?” Peter challenged, his eyes travelling around the room and Wade wondered how hard it was for him to focus. 

“I don’t know if we can. I would love to try, though. It’s either us or SHIELD, and what much damage can we do compared to them?”

After he’d listened to himself – which was an unusual task for him in the first place – Wade realized what he’d just said. He’d made it clear that he wanted Bea to stay with them, even though he didn’t trust himself around her, and it scared him to death that he would be responsible for this little helpless being. 

“Not much, I guess,” Peter eventually said, still looking down at Bea.  
“You know, I wanted nothing more than to protect this little life. When I saw her ... move ... I ... I just ... thought I _have to_ save her. At least her. She is so precious, so innocent, nothing that we saw in this mission is her fault. And she shouldn’t be punished by being raised behind bars.”  
Wade tried to ignore that his eyes watered a bit and concentrated hard on stirring the scrambled eggs and then serving them with the bacon on two plates.  
“It’s crazy, isn’t it? Wanting to raise her,” Peter asked, his voice very calm now and Wade wondered if his medication had kicked in already. “It’s a dumb idea.”  
Wade put two plates on the kitchen island and sat down next to Peter, who picked up his fork slowly.  
“No, I don’t think so. It’s ... the good thing to do. The righ thing.”

Peter nodded, looking down again and kissng Bea’s head.  
“It is. We can be there for her and love her. We can do it. Most importantly, we can protect her,” Peter replied matter of factly and began eating, but the food slipped from his fork every now and then, the meds affecting him too much.  
“Let’s talk about all that stuff later, just enjoy your breakfast,” Wade replied, trying to sound lighthearted.

Wade couldn’t help but smirk, looking down at Bea with delight – she was just too cute not to be loved – but reminded himself to talk to Peter in a few days about everything, when he was feeling better again.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter is long =) Hope you like it guys, see you again in a bit!
> 
> Enjoy <3

The next day they had found some sort of rythm with Bea and actually both gotten quite good at changing diapers and onesies and preparing bottles.  
Peter felt even better and Wade saw him genuinely smile at the little girl after he’d taken the last of his pills.  
The Merc still avoided to stress him or get him into talking about the mission – he’d do that when he felt like it.  
“It’s weird that we haven’t heard from SHIELD, yet,” Peter mentioned after he’d put Bea back on her pillow. They didn’t even have a bed for her, but since she liked to be rocked into sleep, Peter had put the pillow on a web that he’d created between the sofa and wall, so it would sway lighlty. Maybe it wasn’t the ideal solution, but it would have to work for now – and also Wade thought it was pretty cool.  
“Maybe they wait until they hear from us?”  
“What should we say, then?” Peter asked and sounded amused, like he was expecting one of Wade’s usual quips. And the Merc did want to give him one, but his gaze fell on the stack of papers on Peter’s desk.  
They’d unpacked the contents of Bea’s bag on top of it and converted it into kind of a changing table.  
“What if they wait for us to sign?” Peter asked and Wade dropped his gaze. Now or never. Come on, don't chicken out.

“Petey, uh ... there might be the one or other thing ... um ... that you don’t know yet. And that you should know ... signing-wise.”

Peter had wiggled a binky into Bea’s mouth and looked up at Wade’s words. The Merc had noticed that he was more composed now, and this smart gleam was back in his eyes, indicating at least his mind could work a mile a minute again. 

“You remember how the Avengers guys went on that SHIELD guy’s ass about Bea?”  
“Yeah,” Peter replied slowly, visibly working his gears now.  
“So, I ...,” Wade paused and sat down on the sofa next to Peter, turning towards him a little.  
“I called Stark the night we got home ‘cause it was kinda weird how they insisted we’d get her. Be-“  
“Because they could have insisted on _having_ her, since she was found during a mission they lead,” Peter concluded.  
“Yeah. And Stark ... ,” Wade had to pause again, just because this made him so mad. “He said, that there might be something or someone threatening Bea. They don’t know anything for sure, but they also don’t know where HYDRA might be waiting to get her back, so they wanted her ...“  
“As safe as possble?”  
“Yeah.”

Peter thought about that for long seconds, then he sighed slowly.  
“Of course someone would come after her. Once they got their forces back together. They would know she’s somewhere in New York, it’s just a matter of time when they find her. Having her in a huge tower or SHIELD base around the area would be stupid,” he mused, while looking at Bea again.  
“But they don’t know what she looked like, so she’ll be most safe close but with a family, preferrably with someone who they didn’t have on their DNA-collecting list, like you. - So they want us to sign this paper so that Bea can stay with us and is protected ... but for how long? And what if we don’t sign?” he then asked and Wade was amazed once again at how fast Peter thought. 

But he wasn’t wrong with his suspicions. After all, they had to expect the worst from SHIELD, Yes, they took care of Bea and gave her and Peter medical care, but they also drugged him senseless and wanted to keep her in custody.  
“They’ll get her. I don’t think they know our exact location but they no doubt will be quick if they really want something.”  
”And they want Bea, too. More than the Avengers,” Peter mumbled, nodding to himself. “But ... are we pressured into something?”  
He seemed so unsure, which was unusual for him. Wade assumed that this was his way of showing anxiety, not with crazy ticks or anger but with uncertainty. 

“I think we wouldn’t have taken her home if we didn’t want her with us,” the Merc replied, thinking of all the hassle they’d gone through to get the little diaper pooper into their place.  
“Yeah ... hey, since when are you so smart?” Peter joked and Wade grinned broadly.  
“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me.”  
“You wish,” he replied and grinned as well, his tone indicating that he knew what kind of raunchy jokes Wade had in mind right now. 

Wade’s smile got softer and he went to the desk to get the papers.  
“C’mon, let’s sign. We’ll just try our best for her and figure things out as we go.”  
Peter watched him cautiously, as he signed on the dotted line first, then handed Peter the pen and paper.  
He hesitated a moment, then picked up both and wrote his name under it slowly.  
“You’re right. We can at least try. It would feel wrong not to.”

 

They were about to scan the documents when Wade noticed one more empty line on some of the paper and stopped.  
“She also ... uh ... needs a middle and last name for her papers. Even if it’s just temporary, they write.”  
He paused and looked at Peter, who held his gaze.  
“I’d like her middle name to be May. Like aunt May.”  
Wade grinned – their auntie would just love that.  
“Yes, let’s take May. And for the last name ...”

“I think it would be safer when she gets your-“  
“No, please,” Wade sighed and looked away for a moment. “I really don’t want to be reminded of my family with her ... I want her to be as far away from my childhood as possible.”  
“Alright ... well, then we’ll all have one name, that’s a start.” Because when they'd gotten married Wade had takn on Peter’s last name on all his official – real – papers. For his jobs he has kept Wilson only for convenience, and admittedly for safety. 

 

And that was about it. Wade even scanned the document in and sent it to a secure SHIELD server right away – making sure to mask their IP adress so that they couldn’t be tracked down.  
Signed or not, there was no reason for SHIELD to snoop around their private life. They agreed to come to the headquarters for check-ups and that was the maximum Wade could handle. 

 

Later, after they’d all survive a massive crying and screaming fit from Bea, Peter was holding her while sitting on the couch. 

Bea soon fell asleep on Peter’s chest while they cuddled, probably very content with him so close, and Wade saw Peter’s head lolling back sleepily.  
Glancing over, seeing both of them asleep together – thought Peter might just have been resting his eyes - that's when Wade realized … with signing these papers … they became a family. Or would be, soon, if everything worked out, but ... for Wade, there was barely any doubt that he wanted Bea to be their child. But he was far from ready to admitting this to himself or Peter, yet.  
Those two – the beautiful man and this incredibly cute girl – were his family now. 

A painful sting soared through Wade’s scarred heart, but he knew it was true and always would be. They would be together now, no matter what happened. It was crazy that he’d always wished for a family and now, just with signing some papers, he had one. Felt a little finding a jinn in a bottle and getting all three wishes at once. Wade smiled like an idiot when he saw Peter’s fingers patting Bea’s back lazily. The little girl pursed her lips and made a suckling motion that was almost too cute to handle. 

There was still so much to work out now that they made a choice for her, but they’d get it figured out. Peter’s words rung in his ears ... it would feel wrong not to try for her.  
And it would, Wade felt it, too.  
For once in his life he had a chance at doing the right thing, to protect and care for this little girl, take her into their family. And he would do anything for her and Peter. 

***************************************************************************

The very next morning, just when Peter was changing Bea’s diaper on his desk – they took turns each time – the doorbell rang and brought Wade back to reality, since he’d switched his mind off a little while preparing a bottle.  
Lately, he felt more and more strained with trying not to do crazy things and be calm for Bea; it was hard. Sometimes he needed a break, and the routines he had to do for Bea were just what he needed. The same motions, everything in exactly the same place each time. It was probably a weird habit, but it felt good.

“Can you get the door, please?” Peter asked, busy with getting Bea’s clothes back on.  
“Sure thing,” Wade replied and took the speaker off the hook next to the main door.  
“ _Delivery for Parker,_ ” a nasal voice said into the phone, and Wade hit the buzzer.  
“Cool, haul it up,” Wade mumbled and hung up, always having his fun with delivery people because he actually let them come all the way up. They could whine all they wanted, they got that job and they better do it right. Besides, their house had a perfectly fine elvator, so it wasn't like he was forcing anyone into hard labor.

Wade expected maybe one or two parcels, although he tried to remember if they ordered something. When the elevator dinged open and a delivery guy all but wheeled his cargo out of it, Wade’s jaw dropped a little.  
On a small pushcart, he brought a stack of huge boxes into the living room area, glancing only briefly at Bea and Peter, who now had moved to the sofa. 

“Wow, that’s uh ... a lot ...,” Peter mumbled and eyed the crates suspiciously. Right on top were two smaller boxes and a padded envelope.  
“It’s sent along with this. Please sign here to confirm receipt. And I would like to collect some classified documents in original, please,” the man briskly said and took two quick steps over to the sofa. Peter reached out and signed, while awkwardly holding Bea to his shoulder with the other hand.  
”Who sent all this stuff? And who gets the documents?” Wade asked, suspicious now and watching the delivery guy’s every move while he was so close to Bea and Peter.  
“The delivery was ordered by Stark Industries, Sir. And I am not allowed to tell you the destination of the documents.”  
So it was SHIELD, Wade thought. They were probably super mad at them for even sending that stuff in and maybe wanted to prove a fake or find some kind of loophole. Wade hoped Stark had not just hacked but also proofread the documents.

Until now, Wade had tried his very best with Bea, not once allowing his concentration to slip. But suddenly there was this stranger in their apartment, SHIELD on their heels about Bea, and the overall threat to the little girl’s live, the Merc’s fingers itched with the desire to just whip out a knife. 

Peter’s gaze fixed on him, but it took long seconds for Wade to meet it.  
“Can you get them, please? Put them in an envelope, first drawer,” he said, his voice so calm and soothing, each word carefully pronounced. So Wade's brain could handle the tast. Peter always talked like this when he suspected Wade was about to lose it. 

“Sure,” he mumbled, trying to keep his brain from switching to all the weapons that were in easy reach. He couldn’t, no no no no.  
**Do it!**  
With clenched teeth and trembling fingers Wade took an envelope out of the desk and put the signed papers into it, sealing it and then handing it over to the delivery guy, making it clear that he wanted him to leave.  
Good for him that he did as told, because Wade’s hand already twitched in the direction of one of the daggers hidden in the sofa. The door closed behind him and they both heard the chime announcing the elevator doors closing.

“Calm down.”  
“You calm down!” Wade growled and felt bad right away, even though Peter didn’t react at all.  
“Just breathe for a bit,” Peter muttered, his eyebrows drawn together because he also didn’t like what had just happened, but was too nice to scold Wade for it. 

The Merc had to take some more minutes of stomping through the apartment, talking to his voices that were so stupid and dangerous, before his anger had fumed off. Feeling very guilty for his behaviour he came back into the living room, grabbing a knife along the way to open the boxes.  
“Better?” Peter just asked and of course he wasn’t mad, because he was just so good. Wade sighed and had trouble looking him in the eyes.  
“Yes. Sorry.”  
“It’s okay,” he replied, soft and honest, because for him it really was.  
“I’ll try,” Wade added, quieter now and Peter just nodded while patting Bea on the back again to soothe her. The younger man didn’t press further, but Wade knew that all it took him was one word and Peter would help him with everything. 

“Let’s open these things and see what we got.”  
And once again Wade was glad Peter could change the topic so quickly without being rude.  
“Let me do it, sweetie. I got this,” Wade said right away, wanting to make up for his issues.

Peter sat down again with Bea still on his shoulder, who now uttering tired little sounds. Wade gave him the big envelope and Peter shook it carefully, the first thing that fell out was a credit card.  
“What?!” Peter gasped, utterly surprised as more cards clattered out, all of them giftcards for baby stores.  
The letter was marked with the “Stark Industries” Logo and Peter thanked all gods and Thor that he was a member of the Avengers now, if only on call. Most of the giftcards were signed by fellow Avengers heroes or staff members that Peter knew. 

 

“Wow, they’re eager for us to have her ... for quite a while as it seems,” Wade said while opening the boxes one after the other to reveal lots of baby related things. They found a whole box full of clothes, a pale pink dresser and a changing table, a crib that could be converted into a real bed later.  
“That’s really a shitload of stuff...,” Wade commented and threw all the cardboard on a heap, then he unpacked a carseat that could be attached to the matching stroller. Peter’s seen this model a few times in the city already, it looked slim enough to not bump into everything in the busy New York streets, and could be folded up to store it inside the small city apartments.  
“Yeah ...,” Peter replied, starting to feel slightly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things. 

In one of the smaller boxes, there was a thin calendar with all kinds of dates already filled in – most of them visits to SHIELD medical or psychological staff, to have all of them checked out. Along with this were some emergency numbers and all kinds of adresses – all of them with a written confirmation to be safe and confidential.  
”There’s books in here, too,” Wade said while unpacking another box, uncovering some small toys as well as sheets and blankets for the crib.  
Peter nodded, noticing that Bea had fallen asleep on his shoulder, her soft breath on his neck.  
“And I got a schedule for her. Feeding, Sleeping, Playtime, Naps, more Feeding,” he explained, actually glad for all those regulations, since he felt more and more like this was too much for him to handle. Just an hour ago everything had seemed so managable, in theory at least. But now, confronted with the reality of things, Peter's confidence dwindled.

When everything was unpacked Wade decided to throw out the trash right away, and Peter helped him by webbing it all together and shooting it out of the window.  
“You really are the _amazing_ Spiderman, huh?” Wade joked with a wink when he climbed out onto the fire exit and received a little smile.  
Their trash container was full by the time Wade had stuffed everything in and he hoped people wouldn’t look too closely and wonder who just had a baby. If they were lucky nobody would know and ask any nosy questions soon. 

 

Back inside Wade started to work like crazy, wanting for Bea to have some things of her own and feel home. Could babies even feel home? Well, didn’t matter, Wade thought.  
He’d started on the changing table already when he noticed the sun glittering in through the windows.  
Glancing over, he saw that Peter and Bea both were awake, but just cuddled there on the sofa, the younger man staring onto the ceiling with a frighteningly blank expression. Wade remembered the doctor’s words, that Peter could snap at any time. Meds or no, seeing him like this, it wasn’t far fetched. 

 

“How do you feel about a walk? The paper says we should take her out,” Wade lured, because he was sure if it was just for himself Peter wouldn’t go anywhere. So he brought up Bea and sure enough Peter’s eyes fixed on him right away.  
“Yeah, sure. Let’s walk a little,” he agreed and hugged Bea to his chest while getting up. The little girl garbled some sounds but didn’t even cry or anything when Peter dressed her and put her into the carseat. 

 

Outside Wade watched in satisfaction as a little more color returned to the young hero’s cheeks, and his eyes looked a bit more lively. They made it to a nearby park, until Peter said he felt so itchy and tingly all over and Wade saw his knuckles going white on the handle of the stroller. Bea seemed to like the walk, though, she woke up briefly and glanced around, wiggling her little fingers and then falling asleep again. Even she looked better with some fresh air, her chubby cheeks were all rosy. 

Still, Wade ushered them back home and had Peter take some rest. The younger man looked like a zombie once he was on the sofa again, and Wade wished there were some more of those pills left that SHIELD had given him. 

 

Wade finished the changing table and set to work on the crib, because they both wanted for Bea to have her own bed. After Peter had taken a rest, and Bea was sleeping soundly, Peter moved a bookshelf and arranged it differently, placing the changing table and a basket with toys into the far corner of the living room.  
Now they really understood the disatvantages of their huge open-space apartment: there was no designated room left for a baby. 

“We should put up some curtains at least, or ... I don’t know ...,” he mumbled, thinking that Bea would need some privacy, and no distractions when she was supposed to sleep. They also couldn’t just put her in their bedroom and sleep in the living area, because they just had one bathroom and that was attached to the bedroom.  
“How about one of those folding walls? The ones they have in those old movies, where people get naked n stuff!” Wade called over from where he was building up the bed, looking a little lost in between tiny screws and bolts. He was even sweating a little, but not because of the excertion, but because he had to concentrate a lot to get everything right.  
“That’s actually a good idea ... I’ll look around online, we’ve got enough gift cards to get it covered,” Peter said, and powered up his laptop.  
He did think about how it would feel when Bea wasn’t sleeping next to or on him anymore, and it did make him extremely nervous, but he tried not to think about it too much. Besides, the little one needed undisturbed sleep.

It got harder and harder for Peter to concentrate on the site, but he forced himself to, for Bea. It took him about an hour to even find the right department for what he searched, then he had to filter through the assortment. 

His pulse began thrumming against his temple, but Peter also ignored that and put his personal selection in tabs next to each other, clicking and scrolling through it to narrow his choice down. 

"Thank god for online shopping,“ he muttered, thinking he’d go crazy if he was outside any longer. Even the walk today had stretched his nerves paper thin, he felt like every cell in his body was vibrating and at some point he’d explode. 

"Yeah with more shopping outside we wouldn't have enough time to even build up her bed before she needs to sleep again. I mean, she can still sleep in our bed or so, but I'd like it better she'd have her own. She deserves it. - Ain't that right, little Bea? You deserve it, gurl!“  
Bea, who was awake and wigglig around in her carseat next to the couch, waved both her chubby arms and Wade grinned at her.  
Peter watched both of them with a soft smile and hoped that in a few days’ time he would feel truly happy again. By now he just felt empty and like a big cotton ball, even though the medicine had worn off. 

 

By the time Peter ordered dinner for them and prepared another bottle for Bea, Wade had already built up a crib, a battery powered rocking seat for indoors, a jumper – whatever that was there for - and had folded the stroller near the door.  
"Wade,“ Peter called over and was immediately met with the Merc's attentive gaze. The younger man felt exhaustion pull heavily on him, luring him to bed, but he wanted to at least spend some more minutes with his lover. “Thanks so much. For everything.”  
“No, sweetie,” the older man said, smiling lovingly. “Thank you. For bringing Bea here. It’s gonna be a lot of work, but she’s worth every minute.”  
“She is,” Peter agreed, nonetheless hoping he’d be good enough for her. And for Wade, too. He knew about the older man’s dream to one day have a family, but right now Peter’s hands began to tremble again and he quickly excused himself to the bedroom, barely able to entertain any more elaborate thoughts.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last minute uploading before work because there's just not enough time in a day D: For now, there's gonna be some more family time for our three ;)  
> Hope you guys like it, see you again in a bit!
> 
> Enjoy <3

Another morning dawned and saw Wade get up alone, the other side of the bed abandoned. Wade felt drowsy and a little unmotivated to start the day. He spotted Peter on the sofa through the open bedroom door. The younger man was curled up and wrapped in a blanket, but he wore his glasses and was reading a book, two others were laying on the coffee table. 

“Since when are you up? How are you feeling?” Wade immediately blurted while wandering into the living area, feeling bad that he slept through the whole night, but he hadn’t slept so good in days. He liked to think that was due to Bea and just her pure cuteness and awesomeness, but maybe it was also because she kept him so busy and wore him out.

Still, Wade had noticed how Peter’d barely touched his food the other night and wondered if he’d even gotten breakfast yet.  
“I’m okay. Your breakfast is in the microwave,” Peter mentioned, taking notes on a small notepad and smiling sweetly.  
“Did you eat? Are you studying already? You should take some more downtime, honey, uni doesn’t start for another month,” Wade fussed, worried that Peter had been up all night and not resting like he should.  
Peter smiled, and although there was still a tense expression around his eyes, his smile was genuine.  
“I’m studying, but not for uni. I’m doing some reading on babies. What to do, what not to do, what to look out for. I don’t wanna look like a total dunce when SHIELD calls us in.”  
“How could that happen, you’re already super smart,” Wade praised and smiled at the stack of pancakes in the microwave. “Did you eat?”

“Peter. Did you eat?” he asked when he got no answer, and the younger man just shrugged, eyes still trained on the book. He looked smaller all of a sudden and Wade winced, because he’d said that kinda harsh.  
“I wasn’t that hungry.”  
“But you need to eat. We’ll share the pancakes, no buts. Well, except for your butt,” he winked and Peter smiled a little.  
“From now on it might also be Bea’s butt because she pooped all over herself at night, I had to change all her clothes and wash her,” Peter mentioned matter of factly and smirked at Wade’s horrified expression.  
“Uh ... yeah ...” the older man mumbled and went to heat up the breakfast, secretly glad he’d slept through this ordeal. 

 

Peter sighed and closed the thin book, having already assembled a shopping list on a notepad.  
“We should head out soon and get all the missing things. SHIELD wants us in for the next two days, they wrote an e-mail this morning,” he said, looking into the crib to check on Bea. She was still sleeping, rolled up happily in Wade’s patented baby-burrito.  
“Sure. After her next feeding, she should be out like a light again. So Imma get the stoller set up and then we can get rollin’”  
Peter nodded and Wade didn’t comment on how he seemed to dread going out again. With some jokes and gentle coaxing, Wade managed to have Peter eat two pancakes and drink a glass of orange juice.  
After that, Wade sent him to take a shower and cleaned up the living room and set up the stroller.

 

Wade sat on the sofa, staring into Bea’s little face as she chugged on her bottle, when Peter came back. He smelled of shower gel and his shampoo and just ... just so good and familiar as he leaned over the backrest of the sofa, looking at Bea over Wade’s shoulder.  
”Petey ... do you think we can really do it? That they let us take care of her?”  
Peter was silent for long minutes, but reached out and ran a single finger over Bea’s chubby cheek. Wade noticed there was the first little fluff of silky hair showing on her head.  
“I hope so. We have to try,” Peter mumbled and Wade felt a drop of water fall into his neck from Peter’s hair.  
“Yeah,” Wade mumbled, looking down at the little girl, who just finished up her bottle. “She really drinks like a champ. You think she needs some more? She wolfs that stuff down like crazy.”  
“No, I think she’s okay with that. We can take another bottle with us, just in case she gets hungry again.”  
“It freaks me out that I never know if she gets enough food. Like, can’t babies just be born knowing when to say, hey I’m stuffed, all good.”  
“Honey, I’m sure you do everything just fine,” Peter assured after a moment, his voice soft and loving, but Wade just shrugged. He felt a blush rise in his cheeks from the praising words, but he didn’t really think he deserved it. Not yet, anyways, he could still do so much wrong. 

 

A while later, they had the little girl tucked into her carseat and were ready to conquer more baby shopping. All the while, Wade observed Peter covertly out of the corner of his eyes, but the young man seemed to be doing okay. Sometimes he was distracted and he almost forgot a tiny stuffed bunny for Bea (that had been in one of the boxes as a gift), so Wade had to run back in last minute. 

They took the car to a big shopping centre and Wade parked underground a block from it, because the centre’s own parking lot was completely full.  
“Seems like we’re not the only ones who thought baby shopping was a good idea,” Wade mumbled as he steered the car around the narrow halls toward a free spot.  
Wade felt too hot, but didn’t want to turn on the AC because of Bea. She was so tiny and Wade would die if it was his fault she got a cold.  
But driving in itself – safely and in anything else than a tank – took a great deal of Wade’s concentration. Let alone with Bea and Peter in the back. Wade took every turn super careful and tried not to hit the brakes too abruptly.

Eventually they got out of the car and with Bea in her stroller they went to the front of the centre.

Peter grinned the moment they were outside; because of course Wade had to sing as soon as he pushed the stroller down the road.  
“They see me rollin’, they hatin’!”  
He had opted for black sunglasses and a baseball hat instead of his mask, because Bea had started crying bloody murder when she saw him with it. He did, however, wear his black gloves and Peter was sure there were a few guns and knives hidden in his clothes. 

 

Their first stop was a drugstore, where they stocked up on diapers, wipes and all kinds of lotions and baby oils to protect Bea's skin. Loaded with three heavy bags, Peter sent Wade to their car,  
“You sure? I can carry the stuff, easy,” the older man muttered and Peter knew why he was so apprehensive.  
“I can handle it, honey. We'll meet up at the baby store.”  
“Okay. I'll hurry up. Be right back, my two favourite sweethearts,” Wade said cheerfully and kissed Peter on the cheek before running off towards the parking deck.

 

The baby store was on the other end of the shopping centre, so Peter would have to walk through a few side streets where cafe’s and restaurants had put up some tables and chairs outside for their guests.  
There were some office buildings around and Peter was reminded that it was almost lunchtime when he saw people in suits and business attire walking by, most of them heading towards the restaurants or the big post office on one corner of the centre. 

 

Slowly, Peter wandered through the streets, taking deep breaths as he went. It wasn't easy for him at all to be alone with Bea. He felt even worse about it because he'd lied to Wade. He could absolutely not handle it. His spider senses constantly tingled ever since he stepped out of the quinjet with her in his arms. Sometimes it seemed so loud, like white noise assaulting his nerves at top volume, that he barely heard anything else.  
Every night the events in the HYDRA facility haunted him, making him want to cling to Bea and protect her from all evil. 

Peter was very well aware of his irrational thoughts – after all, what could happen here in the streets, when the baby didn't just have a big stroller, but also two superheroes to protect her. It was more that Peter couldn't stop thinking that way.  
He felt constantly watched, like someone hunted him down, and he turned around – seemingly looking at ads and stores – not just once.  
But there never was someone suspicious to see, so he continued to walk slowly, wishing desperately he could just run back home with Bea and lock them both up. 

Suddenly, the stroller stopped and Peter realized he’d walked right into a man. He wore a suit and thick glasses, maybe he was some kind of accountant around here.  
“Whoa, sorry, Sir, are you okay?”, Peter automatically asked, because he had already gripped the stroller, making sure it wasn’t shaking or anything. Bea continued to sleep tightly.  
“Uh, yeah … oh no, I'm sorry,” the man mumbled, shooting a quick glance into the carrier. “What a sweetheart, I'm glad I didn't disturb her dreams,” he said while he took his briefcase into the other hand to not bump it into the stroller.  
He brushed off his suit jacket and apologized again before rushing away into the crowd.  
Peter looked after him for a moment, then he went on through the busy streets to the baby store, now mindful not to run into anybody again. He didn’t think pushing a stroller was something that required practice, but maybe it was just his cluttered mind, Peter mused. 

Soon enough he spotted the store and went in already, being met right away by an assistant in a very bright outfit. Peter admitted right away that he didn't have much experience with babies, so she helped him get the car seat off the stroller and onto a shopping cart.  
“I’ll take your stroller to the side, so you don’t have to worry about it,” she said, all happy smiles and maybe feeling for him a bit, because she also offered to go through his shopping list together.  
“Oh, you’re already pretty well off,” she said while scanning the list. “Yeah, this you’re not gonna need, trust me. It’s what the books suggest, but you’ll see it’s pretty useless.”  
Peter smiled now, glad that she was honest with him and not just out on making a ton of money. Well, with their list for Bea, the store would be making lots of money anyways.  
“So is your ... wife gonna join us?” the girl then asked and Peter finally noticed her baby pink name tag that said Stephanie.  
“Uh, no, uhm, I don’t have a wife-“  
“There you two are!” Wade suddenly said behind them, grinning happily and placing a hand onto Bea’s belly carefully. “Aw, I missed her already, lookatdat sleepy face,” he cooed, all caught up with her for a few seconds.  
“Uh, yeah, as I was about to say, no wife,” Peter smiled, but obviously the girl misunderstood him and sided closer, placing a hand on his that was still holding the shopping list.  
“Then I’m happy to help you with your shopping,” she immediately said, but Wade just shot her a confused look and snatched the shopping list.  
”Nah, we’re all good. Nice of you and all, but we’re just gonna call you if we need help, alright? Need some family time here,” he stage whispered then, winking at her and all but pulling Peter away from her. 

“Man, she was hitting at you,” the Merc grumbled, looking back over his shoulder a bit too possessively.  
“Yeah, right. Cause I’m such a catch, married with a baby. She even asked for my wife when she spotted the ring,” Peter replied, clipping the shopping list to the shopping cart.  
“You’ll always be a catch, that’s why I need to keep all those people’s hands off ya,” Wade replied, grinning, before he breathed a kiss to Peter’s temple. 

 

So they got all in with the shopping, both concentrating to get everything right for their Bea.  
A whole bunch of clothes and bibs went into their cart, most in three different sizes.  
“They grow so fast,” Stephanie had told them, and Peter had just nodded. With all the milk that the little one was wolfing down every day, he had no doubt in that.  
Since Bea couldn't even sit yet, shoes were not an option, but they did make sure to get her lots of thick socks and a jacket, because it was getting colder.

“Petey, she needs a superhero costume,” Wade suddenly declared, smiling at Bea, who was still sleeping soundly. “And a tutu.”  
“Why the tutu?” Peter asked, smiling curiously at his lover.  
“Well, duh, ‘cause she’s a princess.”  
The younger man grinned, so amazed by how much Wade loved the girl already. Well, he did, too. More than words could express. It wasn't just … because of the way they got together. It was from the moment Bea looked him in the eyes the first time, that Peter was absolutely, madly in love with her.  
But there was just something about him, weighing too heavy on his heart to let him express how happy he was to have her.  
“Fine, then. A tutu. - Oh, she also needs one of those sleeping bag things.”  
“Or a few of them, 'cause she just pukes everywhere.”  
”It’s called spitting up for babies.”  
“Because that makes it any more cuter?”  
Peter grinned, because it was true. It was gross to have a baby, lots of bodily fluids involved, but that wasn’t the end of the world. Nothing wet wipes and a washing machine couldn’t fix.  
And most of the time it was also very very cute and filled with a lot of slowly building love. 

Within a few hours, the trunk of their car was full and they could just barely fit the folded stroller in as well.  
“I’m really glad you got that car. What a hassle if we had to buy one now,” Peter mentioned. He was still jittery from the mission, but there was no doubt in his mind that he could care for Bea.  
“Yeah. See, I’m all prepare-y and stuff,” Wade grinned at him and Peter smiled.  
“You are.”

Inside the car, Peter sat in the back with Bea, strapped her carseat in with the seatbelts, and patted her stomach until she fell asleep, suckling on her binky.  
“We need to think of other things, too. Maybe ... we should call a lawyer or someone? To help us with SHIELD ... I mean, they have to stick to the plan, but I don’t want them to find a way around it somehow. And ... I don’t want them to test around on Bea,” Peter mentioned quietly when Wade sat in the driver’s seat and looked at them over the mirror.  
Wade scowled immediately, and then snatched his phone. His work phone.  
“I got someone.”  
“Wade, I-“  
“Chillax, sweetie, he’s cool with The Avengers, he’s a good guy.”  
“Then why’s he in your work phone?” Peter asked ever so quietly, and Wade looked up again, smiling apologetically.  
”Because I got to know him on a job. But I later found out he’s a lawyer over in Hell’s Kitchen and asked for his number, in case I ever need someone trustworthy. He really is a good guy, I promise.”

Wade texted the number quickly and then drove them home, where Peter fed Bea and put her into her crib where she slept off her milk-coma.  
“Her mouth is open, that’s the cutest thing. Like a tiny drunk. Wasted baby, I love it,” Wade crooned over her, taking a photo with his phone and Peter smirked. The Merc was so head over heels for her, it was adorable. 

Wade took care of some dinner preparation while Peter unpacked their haul and put it away in drawers and under the changing table. Now it really began to look like a mini nursery tucked away in the corner of their living room.  
“I think she’s gonna like it. It’s gonna be like her own little room,” Peter mumbled, feeling strange even saying this, because he could still not fully grasp having Bea. It seemed too good to be true, like SHIELD could find a loophole any minute now and rip her from their arms.  
He was scared all the time and he knew it was so irrational. But he couldn’t help it, so Peter just hid it from Wade, not wanting to bother his lover with that. 

 

“Hey,” Wade began softly, suddenly standing right behind Peter. The younger man smiled, but his senses ran wild by the sudden presence behind him. Peter said nothing when Wade placed both hands on his hips, hugging him close.  
“I think we’re really gonna do that. Like, being good at it and all,” Wade said and kissed Peter’s neck, then turned him around slowly so that they could face each other.

 

A little smile crept up on Peter’s lips, which Wade slowly sealed with his. They both reached out for one another, but tentatively, both seemingly aware that this was their first kiss since they were back home. The second Wade was glad that Peter was’t shying away from him, he heard the younger man’s breath hitch.  
Opening his eyes, Wade saw tears streaming down Peter’s face and the next moment he was on his knees, sobbing into his hands and shaking like a leaf.  
“Shit, Petey ...” Wade hissed and just sat on the floor with him, cradling Peter’s head against his shoulder, not wanting to trap him with an embrace. 

This time, it wasn’t over as quickly as at the SHIELD base, and after long minutes Wade looked around. There were tissues on the changing table and he did want Peter to lay down or something, but he also didn’t want to startle him now.  
”Petey ... I’m gonna help you up, okay?” he asked, and slowly got up, pulling Peter with him. They stumbled to the bedroom and once on the bed, Peter rolled up on his side, hiding his face in his hands again.  
Wade could just sit next to him and offer tissues, or caress his shoulder or arm. He hated to see his lover like this, but at the same time he was glad Peter was able to release some tension, let it all out. And he was also kind of relieved that Peter wasn’t violent or loud, so that at least Bea wouldn’t be bothered. 

Peter calmed down after a while, his sobs getting less urgent, but he didn’t stop crying for long minutes. Wade eventually had to go and feed Bea, but he put a blanket around Peter’s shoulders and kissed his head, promising him to come back. 

 

When he checked on him again, Peter was fast asleep, probably too exhausted from crying for ... _two hours_. Wade sighed.  
Peter’s face looked puffy and his lids were swollen, so Wade snuck around to get a cold mask from the fridge (it was his, actually, for when he had intense headaches or the skin around his eyes hurt too much) and carefully placed it onto Peter’s face.  
The young man didn’t stir, just sighed out a breath. More tears streamed from under the mask and Wade carefully dabbed them away until they stopped.

 

Then he snuck out of the room again and closed the door behind himself. He slept on the sofa that night, not wanting to disturb Peter when he had to get up every now and then to feed Bea.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello sweeties <3 In today's chap, things will get a bit more confusing maybe, but we'll soon find out what happened in the few days that Wade and Peter spend getting accustomed to Bea.  
> Stay tuned ;)
> 
> Enjoy <3

Peter slept soundly the whole night, and late into the next morning, but eventually made his way out of the bedroom, looking pale and ... something about him was ... different.  
Wade couldn’t quite put his finger on it at first, but when Peter smiled down at Bea a few minutes later, he was sure the younger man was finally recovering. His features were soft, loving even, when he looked at her. His eyes shimmered, and although his face was still a bit puffy from all the crying, his movements were relaxed, and he spoke soft but confidently, without hesitation.  
Still, Wade took most of the household work that day, letting Peter have lots of time with Bea. Every now and then Wade would look over, seeing them cuddle and Peter giving Bea lots of kisses, holding her and talking softly to her.  
It was so perfect that Wade swore to himself that he’d do everything he could to have these two with him for the rest of his life. 

 

While they managed to ignore it throughout the day, they were reminded again of their appointment with SHIELD when a mail pinged into Peter’s Avengers account in the late evening.  
They both sighed and contemplated not going, but it would just mean complications.  
“We have to play along. If we show them that we’re capable, they won’t have anything to use against us. Until the Avengers get us away from SHIELD for good, we’ll have to go,” Peter said, while unwrapping something called a diaper bag.  
It was basically a huge handbag that they could fill with everything Bea needed when they were out longer, and the shoulder strap could also be attached to the stroller.  
“I’ll pack it later, uh ... would you ... go for a walk alone?” Peter asked, fidgeting around on the strap of the bag.  
“Sure,” Wade said without thinking about it. When Peter shot him a grateful look, the Merc grinned. “But that’s a one-time only offer, alright? Tomorrow we’re all gonna go for a walk again,” he added with his voice still soft, but he wanted to make it clear that he wanted Peter out of the house at leat once a day.  
It would help his condition and his mood improve, Wade knew that. Well, he also knew how hard it was sometimes to do such simple things as going outside, so he decided to let it slide just this once. 

 

Later, at night when Wade had just gotten Bea to sleep, Peter was still up, walking around their living room and collecting toys. 

It had taken so long today to get the little girl to sleep, and maybe she felt their anxiety for the coming day and was antsy as well. Wade tiptoed away from her bed and looked for Peter, since they were both now wide awake. He found his lover in their laundry room, all the while still baffled about how such a little person could amount so much dirty laundry.

 

Stuffing as much as possible in the washing machine, Peter thought about taking some milk formula with them tomorrow.  
Bea was in her best mood with a full stomach, so maybe he should feed her right before their appointment or on the way. He really didn’t want her to be cranky at SHIELD – not that he would be mad at her, he never was, but for Peter it was more about making a good impression. 

“Here you are. Still workin’?” Wade asked, leaning against the doorframe.  
“Yeah, I just wanted to get the rest of the laundry done. Can’t sleep anyways.”  
“Me neither,” Wade grumbled darkly. 

 

Peter knew how the Merc felt about bringing the little girl to the doctor’s, but they really had no other choice if they wanted to keep her. At least they would have a capable lawyer at hand, Peter thought. He didn’t know him, but if Wade trusted him, Peter would, too.  
“I talked to my guy today – y’know, the lawyer guy – and he said he’d meet us there tomorrow with a contract for SHIELD to sign. So that they couldn’t crawl through any loopholes ‘n stuff.”  
“Good, good. I’m glad he could find time to help us ...”  
Wade grinned and placed his hands on Peter’s hips once the younger man stepped to him.  
“And he said someone had tipped him off to help us should we call, and it seems like The Avengers Initiative is paying for his services.”  
Peter breathed out a laugh and leaned against Wade’s shoulder, content with being held. His mind seemed to have calmed down since his breakdown last night, and his spider sense had stopped tingling for once.  
“I’m so glad they’re on our side,“ he sighed and hoped everything would turn out alright. It was so challenging, but Peter thought it may just take a while for them to get the hang of things. After all, other couples had at least a few months' time to prepare for a baby.  
“They know we’re better for her than SHIELD. And so they help. Also – what if there’s more?”  
“More what?” Peter asked and looked up to Wade.  
“More facilities. Children. You know they’re still searching.”  
“Yeah ... they’re probably all afraid their DNA was used to make an innocent child suffer in a lab.”  
Peter felt Wade’s shoulders shake and pulled him close. 

 

On the morning of their first appointment with SHIELD, Wade was understandably silent. Peter didn’t know what to say, because he knew the Merc’s bone deep fear of anything that had to do with doctors, but it couldn’t be helped.  
The younger man would have loved to spare Bea the appointment as well, but at the same time he wanted her to be as healthy as possible. 

So Peter made sure she was dressed perfectly, nothing had even the tiniest spot. He ordered Wade on how to pack the diaper bag and some toys and a bottle of milk in case it took longer.  
“Does she really need all that?” Wade asked sceptically and heaved the bag onto his shoulder as he grabbed the car keys.  
”Maybe not, but I am pretty sure they don’t just want to see how she is, but also how we are with her,” Peter explained while strapping Bea into the seat and occupying her with a binky and a little toy.  
“Oh ... yeah ... makes sense ... for them.”  
“Well, I did watch a few videos online on how to pack a diaper bag, so I guess it’s gonna fit all the standards. Can’t be bad to have some extra stuff for her, in case of another explosion.”  
“Ugh, right. ‘Cause you’re our little poopie-bomb, right?”  
They got everything packed up pretty quickly and headed down to the basement, where they boarded their car and Peter carefully strapped Bea’s carseat in before sitting next to her. 

 

In the car they both fell silent with tension, so Wade put on a CD with nursery rhymes and songs for Bea, while Peter just sat with her in the backseat, keeping her company. She looked out of the window every now and again, but her eyes got a little droopy eventually.  
Peter was glad the ride didn’t take long enough for her to fall asleep, because she already got cranky when they arrived in the parking lot. Peter put her into a carrier that he’d put onto his chest, and tucked her tightly into a blanket.  
“Maybe we should just leave again,” Wade mumbled when he saw Bea pull a sad little face. He reached out to tuck the blanket over her head, which seemed to calm her down a little bit.  
“I wish we could,” Peter sighed and kissed her head, hoping they’d get out quickly and got to bring her home again.  
“But you do look good with this carrier thingy strapped on. Like a hot momma,” Wade joked, but even he lacked enthusiasm today.  
“Yeah, thanks,” Peter mumbled, smirking up at him and hoping for a kiss, but Wade apparently wasn’t in the mood. Or way too distracted, because he kept looking around.  
“No, really. Brings out your ass,” the Merc replied and gave him a little smack, which made them both laugh at least a little. 

“There he is,” Wade then said after looking around, and put the diaper bag on his shoulder again. Peter followed his gaze, one hand still on Bea’s neck on instinct.

A man in a dark suit walked towards them, his steps brisk and confident, even though he waved a stick in front of him, tapping the ground left and right. He looked very fit under the suit, and with the way he moved Peter guessed he must at least do some kind of sport, maybe martial arts even. His eyes were hidden under a pair of red tinted glasses that matched his tie. 

“Oh, yeah, and he’s blind, so you get why I like him,” Wade mentioned smirking, and Peter pursed his lips. Of course Wade would say that, but Peter knew he didn’t mean it as serious as a few years back when they had just met. Back then he had loathed himself, but their relationship had helped him a great deal to accept himself and the fact that he was worthy of love. Peter hoped little Bea would have an even bigger effect on Wade. 

 

“Mr. Murdock?” Peter said so that the guy would know when to stop. The lawyer smiled gently and stopped right in front of them, reaching out the hand that wasn’t holding the cane.  
“Mr. Parker, Mr. Wilson, nice to meet you both,” he said and shook Peter’s, then Wade’s hand. Peter noticed how he adressed Wade with his old last name, so he must really only know him from work.  
“Actually, it’s Parker, too, now. Like, for official business. For work it’s still Wilson,” Wade clarified and seemed proud just like every time he could say it. Murdock grinned, and clapped Wade on the shoulder in a friendly manner.  
“If that’s not good news. Congratulations. Would you like me to change the contracts accordingly?”  
“Nah, leave it, it’s none of SHIELD’s business. But I want you to know. Since I hope we’re ... on the same side?”

Peter noticed how the look in Wade’s eyes had changed, how he was all professional now, trying to seal some bonds between them in the hopes of keeping Murdock out of SHIELD’s grip. Sometimes Peter forgot that Wade was actually the best Merc around and thus was also able to assess people and situations quickly.  
The lawyer smirked, and nodded briefly.  
“Of course we are. I prefer to stay on the Avengers’ side of things anyways. You know, not going that great with secret agencies. – also, call me Matt, we’ll be working together for quite some time.”  
The two men shook hands again and the Merc grinned.  
“Wade - Yeah, no, SHIELD sucks most of the time. – So let’s see what you got for us?”  
Peter smiled to himself, glad that Wade had taken charge of their conversation. He also remembered that Wade and Murdock had met on one of Wade’s jobs, so Peter wondered if the lawyer had other ties than to the Avengers.. Anyways, if Wade trusted him, so would Peter.

“Thanks again for helping us out,” Peter said quickly, not wanting to stand aside and just watch. He smiled, hoping that Matt could hear it somehow.  
”Please, I should thank you. We have more work than ever with The Avengers as our clients,” Matt said, smiling cheekily and Peter laughed.  
“Yeah, I bet.”  
“And that’s the little one?” he asked and Peter wondered how in the world he would know when Matt reached out to carefully place a hand on Bea’s head. Then he realized, the little girl hat made small sounds all the while, maybe enjoying the company and wanting to talk as well.  
“Yeah, that’s Beatrice,” Peter said, watching as Matt stroked a hand over Bea’s head and cheek. She seemed to like him, and he smiled when she held onto his hand.  
“A real heartbreaker, huh? Well, let’s talk some business before we get to the meeting,” the lawyer started, now all professional again. With another smirk, he wriggled his fingers out of Bea’s hold and reached into his briefcase to take out a stack of papers. Wade took them and held them so that Peter could look at them as well.  
“I prepared a contract after some hinting from a certain Mr. Stark. I think we need to make sure SHIELD doesn’t get too handsy with Miss Bea’s health related data.”  
“Yeah, they might be pissed about us having her.”  
“And they already tested her blood without permission, so there’s no need for any more testing,” Peter added hastily, trying at least to hide his anger at that.  
“Yeah, I put a paragraph into the contract, just in case. It says that you can revoke that part if need be, say if she needs any kinds of treatment. But only you, nobody else, for as long as you hold temporary or permanent custody.”  
“Good, very good,“ Wade mumbled, studying the papers intently. They both read over it quickly, but it all seemed flawlessly worked out, which Peter hadn’t expected otherwise from one of Wade’s contacts. 

Matt told them the key points of the contract and went inside the nearby SHIELD building with them a bit later. It looked like a regular office building, but ten hidden underground floors were all sealed off for a specialized SHIELD infirmary. They even had a helicopter landing space at the top, which Peter knew because he’d taken breaks there often on his runs through the city. There was probably a secret elevator all the way down, and maybe some tunnels connecting the building to other SHIELD sites. 

On the third floor underground they were sent to an office, where a blond-haired doctor waited for them already. She wore a crisp white jacket with a nametag on it and a stethoscope around her neck. She smiled warmly and reached out her hand. 

“Hello, I’m Dr. Dearing, Mr. Wilson and I met already,” she introduced herself and shook their hands, then she smiled at Bea and wanted to touch her but Wade stopped her with a gesture.  
“No,” he simply said, features tight, and Peter looked at him with a pleading expression.  
“Wade, please.”  
“Yeah, I know. But no. Let’s sit,” he grumbled and guided Peter over to the chairs, all the while they were watched by the doctor closely. She didn’t seem offended at Wade’s behaviour, but she could also just have a good poker face, Peter thought.  
Bea began uttering small sounds as Peter sat down and carefully unwrapped the blanket around her a little bit, since it was warm enough in the room. She nuzzled her face and hands onto Peter’s chest and he couldn’t help but smile and kiss her head. 

Matt took a seat next to them and whipped out a stack of contracts, that Dr. Dearing looked at with surprise.  
“Matt Murdock, I will represent Mr. Parker and Mr. Wilsons legal interests regarding Miss Beatrice.”  
“Oh, sure,” Dr. Dearing quicky said, but she seemed rattled by this. Like she feared some high ranking SHIELD personell would come bursting through the door any minute now and yell at her for even allowing Matt in. 

She flipped through the pages for a moment, shooting looks at Bea from time to time, as if she’d really like to get closer to her. 

“So ... uh, while I read that ... let’s talk about what’s on the agenda today,” she started, still going page by page. “I would like to give Beatrice a full check-up and then take a blood sample to determine-“  
“Wait, what? Why would you ever need her blood again? Your guys took Bea’s blood already!” Wade said right away, making Matt jerk with the sudden noise.  
“Without permission,” Peter added because he couldn’t point that out enough.  
Dr. Dearing looked a little uncomfortable and sighed.  
“I am aware of that and I would like to apologize on behalf of my coleagues. But this here is a different department altogether. Some things ... uh changed last-minute. Regarding how departments work together. We’re under SHIELD, but we don’t share the same resources. I for instance only know that Miss Beatrice isn’t entirely human and that Mr. Parker was on a rather exhausting mission, any reasons for that are unknown to me because they’re highly classified. And SHIELD did test her blood, but only to match it with a database. When this didn’t turn up any results, her remaining samples were sealed. So I am left having to figure out her health requirements and whether it is neccessary to vaccinate her against certain illnesses or of she’s not going to need that. But ... well, I’m pretty much left alone with figuring out how to get samples for testing.”  
Peter pressed his lips together after her statement. Yes, he understood her dilemma, but Wade and him were also apprehensive towards letting anyone that close to Bea again. 

“Maybe we could make some use of our paragraph right here, which states that Mr. Parker or Mr. Wilson could allow you to take one sample,” Matt now chimed in, pushing the paper towards the doctor again.  
She looked a bit more hopeful, and with the look in her eyes Peter wondered if she liked working under SHIELD: Maybe not so much. But he knew the agency could be very persuasive with money and other nice things if it came to contracting people to work for them. 

“Yeah, that ... that would help me a lot. Would you be okay with that?” she sasked, adressing Wade now mostly, because her voice went very soft again. It might be that she had some kind of psychological training as well, Peter noted mentally, because she seemed to know she was on thin ice with Wade.  
“Uh ...” the Merc uttered, clearly overwhelmed with saying anything.  
“It’s for Bea’s good, right? I mean, she could get sick.”  
“She could, if a certain percentage of her was human. Or if her mutant powers – whatever they might be, don’t include a healing factor.”  
Wade flinched at the last words and looked at Bea uneasily.  
“So you ... can figure out if she has a healing factor?” he asked slowly, getting pale under his scars.  
“Yes.”  
“SHIELD can’t know of the results. Ever. I want them to be between us exclusively,” Wade demanded, hiding his hands under the table and letting only Peter see how much they were trembling.  
“That can be ... agreed on. Mr Murdock?” she asked with a faint smile and Matt nodded.  
“Sure, since I witnessed this agreement I can put it into an extra contract later, which I will be mailing to you as soon as possible,” he said quickly, then the doctor nodded again.  
Peter wondered if she’d ever had clients like them. She also didn’t seem to know where Bea came from, or what had happened on the mission.  
Well, Peter wouldn’t tell her, he didn’t want to even think about it ever again. 

“So then, does it say somewhere what I can and cannot do?” the doctor asked, seemingly having made peace with the fact that she would be under much more scrutiny here.  
Matt told her a number and listened while she turned the pages.  
“As negotiated with our clients, you are allowed exactly one blood-sample of regular size to exclusively use for testing in terms of Miss Beatrice’s health requirements. You are further expected to keep all samples as well as all information regarding her health under minimum Level 8 clearance,” he then stated.  
The Doctor nodded, flicking through the documents and reading some paragraphs intently.  
“We’ll just need one sample, so that we can research her health requirements. So I can fully agree on the amount stated,” she said calmly and as much as Peter was still suspicious, he began to like her. At least she didn’t seem greedy to test around with Bea, but actually interested in what the little one needed.  
She then signed the documents and some other thing Matt handed her, that stated she agreed to him preparing more documents on all additional agreements made that day. The lawyer then got up and picked up his cane and briefcase, stating that he would give them some privacy.  
“Mr. Wilson, if you could give me a call later today?” he asked, but Wade wasn’t quite there to answer him, so it was Peter who said he’d make the call as soon as they were home. The young hero hoped that their lawyer would have some more intel on what exactly had changed between SHIELD and the medical team that had them at such odds with one another.  
Peter just couldn’t let the doctor’s statement go, something about it let his spider senses tingle. 

 

When Matt had left, Dr. Dearing got up and with the way his muscles tensed, Peter feared for a moment that Wade would jump up and hit her.

“I promise I’ll make everything as quick as possible, but I need to take a look at Beatrice now, alright?” she asked and looked at Wade specifically. It took the Merc a moment to process her words, but then he nodded, not saying anything.  
Peter got up then, patting Wade’s shoulder reassuringly, although he didn’t feel all that much better if he was honest.

Peter tried desperately to keep his own nerves at bay when he sat down with Bea on the table and began taking off her onesie. She didn’t quite like this, wiggling around and waving her chubby arms to get him to stop.  
Wade stood to the side, leaving a good amount of space between him and the doctor, but still not wanting to be away from Bea. 

First the doctor looked Bea over, checked if she developed right – which she apparently did, because she had nothing to object – and then prepared a syringe.

The needle wasn’t even in contact with Bea’s skin yet and Peter saw Wade’s eyes roll back. Then the Merc fell to the ground with a loud thump.  
“Did he just pass out?” Dr. Dearing asked and there was amusement in her voice, but also enough concern that Peter wasn’t mad.  
“Yeah ... hadn’t expected that,” Peter mumbled, nodding.  
“Me neither. I hope he’s okay there on the floor,” the doctor said calmly and carried on with her tasks, taking her sample and not even flinching when Bea started crying.

Peter was devastated when he heard her, because it wasn’t the kind of “I’m hungry”-cry, but this one meant pain. His eyes teared up and his palms were suddenly clammy and cold, and he hoped that he wouldn’t pass out as well.  
“Almost done,” the doctor said, to him probably, and closed up the little vial. 

After applying a band-aid to Bea’s arm, she even took care of Wade, letting a male nurse come in so that they could lift him up onto the sofa in the corner next to a small coffee table. Peter on the other hand got a plastic cup of water from her and held it with a shaky hand while cradling Bea against his chest with the other. The little girl was finally calming down again, just whining a little onto his shoulder. 

“Would you mind if we talk a little, now that we’re kind of in private?” Dr. Dearing asked and Peter shook his head.  
“Don’t mind it, we can talk.”  
“Perfect, you can sit there if you want,” she said and gestured towards a comfortable chair where Peter could hold Bea easier and maybe get her to sleep again. He agreed right away and settled down.

He looked over to Wade, who was sprawled on the couch and out like a light. For a moment Peter feared he would have a meltdown when he woke up in doctor’s office.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey you sweet people <3  
> Since I'm lying around here with a broken leg (cracked tibia), I got lotsa time to write new chapters XD So get ready for some crazy stuff (crazy good, mostly).  
> In this chap, our Petey finally tells his side of the story and we get to know a tiny little bit about what the Avengers have been up to. Hope you guys like it!
> 
> Enjoy <3

Bea didn’t calm down that quickly, still upset about the doctor poking her with that needle. So eventually Peter tried offering her the bottle with lukewarm milk and she began drinking slowly.  
“Oh, thank god,” he sighed when she was finally quiet, but hen immediately stilled. What did he just say? Why did he say that?! In front of the doctor!  
His heart raced again with panic that she’d deem him unfit to handle a baby and take Bea away, all his senses screamed at him to just jump out of the next window and run with her.  
”Yeah, they can be quite the handfull,” the doctor just said softly instead and Peter looked up with wide eyes.  
“Yeah,” he gasped and hoped he wouldn’t seem too freaked out. Oh god, he needed to get himself together and behave normally, or else-  
“Mr. Parker, please calm down. There is no need for you to be nervous, everything is alright,” Dr. Dearing said and leaned back in the seat across from him, next to the couch where Wade was still passed out on.  
“Okay, yeah, sure ... uh, I didn’t mean to ... sound so ... you know ...,” he stammered and felt sweat break out on his back again.  
“It’s alright, really. How about you take a nice sip of that water and then we talk?”  
Peter nodded quickly and sipped on the water, carefully placing the plastic cup back onto the table without allowing his hand to shake too much. 

“Would you like to talk about your last mission?”  
“No,” Peter automatically said and cringed again because goddamnit why couldn’t he get a grip on himself today?! “I mean – I really don’t ... oh god, please don’t think I ... uh,” he sighed and bowed his head over Bea, taking a deep breath. She smelled so nice, like baby powder and her foamy soap and ... home.  
“Mr. Parker, I don’t think anything at that moment other than that you seem very stressed. I can assure you that this talk is completely confidential.”  
“Yeah.”

It took him another few minutes to get his words back together, and he watched Bea drink as he spoke again.  
“I really don’t want to talk about it. I can’t.”  
“Why do you think you can’t?”  
Another long pause followed. 

“It hurts,” Peter finally admitted whispering, then kissed Bea’s head when she looked up to him with her big blue eyes. 

“Then let’s talk about Beatrice.”  
“Bea.”  
Dr. Dearing smirked and looked at the little one affectionately.  
”Bea. So how are things with her? Are you getting along?”  
“Oh, yes, absolutely,” Peter quickly said and tried to recal what he’d practiced in his mind on the way. “She sleeps very well and only wakes up about three or four times a night. We are doing a lot of research on how to take care of her and of course we keep track of her sleeping and feeding rythms, if you want I could show you-“  
“Mr. Parker,” she interrupted softly and leaned over, propping her elbows on her knees. “I understand that you’re nervous, but please I promise you that I won’t take Bea away from you. I won’t.”  
It took a moment for Peter to register her words, then he nodded and tried to hide the fact that there were tears collecting in his eyes.  
“But I need you to be honest with me,” she insisted, and Peter nodded again. He shot a look over to Wade, who was still out. He didn’t even snore, but at least he still breathed.  
Wade wouldn’t hear him for a while, and the doctor wanted him to be honest, so ...

“I’m so tired,” Peter then sighed. “Not because of Bea, she’s so amazing, I love her so much, but ... I’m tired. I can’t sleep. I mean I do sleep, but ... it doesn’t help. Sometimes I think I lover her so much but I don’t even know if she’s aware of that. Maybe I just can’t show it right? Wade is so sweet with her, he kisses her all the time and makes her smile. He’s so great, he takes on so much.”  
The words just streamed out of his mouth like a river finally breaking free.  
“Please don’t take Bea away from me, she’s ... she’s so tiny and if I hadn’t seen her. Nobody saw her, but I did. I need to protect her, I need to be there for her, because ... because I couldn’t save her mother.”

Tears dripped down and fell on Bea’s bib, the soft cloth soaking everything up. 

Quietly, the doctor handed him a box of tissues and Peter took some out of it to wipe his face.  
“Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me,” Dr. Dearing said softly, taking some notes on a tablet.  
“Do you feel guilty about not saving her mother?” she asked and Peter just nodded, more tears streaming down his face. “It’s not your fault, Mr. Parker.”  
Peter looked up, wiping some of his tears away quickly.  
“How would you know? They didn’t tell you about the mission, did they?”  
Dr. Dearing smiled softly, but shook her head. “No, they didn’t. But I just know it’s not your fault. How could it be? Would it be your fault then you’d be a criminal, a murderer, and you’d have been forced to run away instantly. But you stayed. And saved little Beatrice. You’re a hero, Mr. Parker, so it’s not your fault.”  
Peter stared at the doctor with his mouth slightly open, and then clamped his lips shut so he could stifle a sob. He sniffed and nodded jerkily, because maybe the doctor was right. After all, he couldn’t have guessed where the ceiling fell.  
“You know how I got her?” Peter asked, his voice dull, his head swimming as well as his eyes.  
“No. Tell me about it,” the doctor encouraged quietly.

“I cut her out of her dead mother’s stomach,” he said slowly and felt his hands getting ice cold, just like they did when the blood on them dried in this vault of terror that he’d gotten into.  
Dr. Dearing fell silent and when Peter looked up she was staring at him. Her surprise was carefully concealed, but Peter saw that she was absolutely shocked. 

Again, the words just flew out of Peter’s mouth and he was glad Bea and Wade were now both sleeping.  
“There was an explosion. The ceiling came down and some parts hit me in the head. When I got up ... I saw her mother laying there. I ... could only see her stomach, everything else ... well ... and then I didn’t know what to do ... but then Bea moved inside her. I don’t know what happened, suddenly I was right there, cutting and cutting. There was blood everywhere. And then I held her in my hands, there was so much blood on both of us. I had to get out. I had to.”

Peter hid his face with one of his hands, since the other was still holding Bea. He tried not to sob, but it didn’t quite work, there was just too much pain inside of him.  
It felt weird that he hadn’t been able to talk to Wade about that, but to a complete stranger he could. At the same time he felt relieved, like a weight slowly eased itself off his shoulders. 

“It hurts,” he whined behind his hand. “It’s always there when I close my eyes.”  
God, he sounded pathetic, so weak, way too weak to protect Bea, but he just couldn’t help it. 

A sigh was uttered from the couch and soon enough Wade was awake and took in the situation. Within seconds, he was off the sofa and at Peter’s side.  
”What the hell did you do?! Fuck, get away from him!” he growled and then his strong hands were on Peter’s shoulders, holding him. To Peter, it felt like Wade was keeping him from falling apart. 

 

“Mr. Wilson, I just asked Mr. Parker about what happened at the mission,” the doctor said evenly but Wade just glowered at her.  
“None of your business,” he mumbled and felt Peter’s shoulder shiver under his fingers. The younger man looked devastated, his face hidden in one hand, the other cradling a sleeping Bea against his chest.  
“We’re leaving, I’ve fucking had it with you.”  
“Mr. Wilson, please-“  
“No, shut it! I don’t wanna hear any of your lies, just leave them alone! First you hurt Bea and now Peter,” he growled and nodded toward the colorful band-aid on Bea’s chubby arm.  
“Mr. Wilson, now you listen to me,” the doctor suddenly said and Wade’s whole body went cold with fear. His brain automatically went through all the weapons he had hidden on his body and he decided that he’d go for the silenced handgun in his left boot should she move even an inch.  
“I have to work with all of you, not just with Beatrice. Especially Mr. Parker’s trauma needs to be treated if you want to keep her, and I think you will want that. And you will not yell at me in my office,” she added with an icy glare in his direction, before scribbling something down on a little slip of paper.  
Wade pressed his lips together and watched as she placed the paper on the coffee table, then shoved it over to him. 

Peter took some deep breaths and automatically Wade started to rub his shoulders.  
“Wade ... please ...” he said and the Merc knew he didn’t mean to say he wanted to go. No, Peter probably wanted to tell him to behave and not yell at the doctor. And maybe not shoot her, as well.  
“Mr. Wilson,” she said and Wade hated the way she said his name, hated the way any doctor said his name. His fingers twitched in the direction of his left boot, but he held back. “This is a prescription for some anti-depressants. I want you to make sure that Mr. Parker takes one pill every morning.”  
Wade looked at the paper and his anger fumed off a little bit. He took the prescription and folded it neatly, putting it in his pocket. He hated doctors, but he had seen what those little pills could do for Peter’s condition.  
”Yeah,” Wade just agreed and the doctor seemed glad that he didn’t go for the gun. 

In the meantime, Peter had composed himself a little bit, and as the doctor offered to give him a shot of something – which made Wade’s skin crawl and his vision go red for a moment – he agreed. So while Wade took a soundly sleeping Bea into his arms, the Dr. Dearing prepared another syringe.  
This time, Wade didn’t even dare to look, just stared at the wall with his jaw set tightly to subdue the nausea that swept over him.  
Peter didn’t even utter a sigh, and thanked the doctor when it was over. He even told Wade when it was safe to turn around.  
“Can we go now? I think we can all use a break,” Wade muttered, rocking Bea in his arms slowly.  
“Of course. But we’ll meet again tomorrow, please keep that in mind. After I get the test results on which vaccines work on Bea or if she needs any at all, I’d like to discuss her future medical treatment with you.”  
“Uh huh,” Wade just said, not trusting his words. He took the diaper bag and heaved it onto his shoulder when the doctor was suddenly right in front of him, reaching out a hand again in hopes for a handshake.  
”Maybe we could also discuss how you could get more comfortable with the situation.”

Wade was sure he blacked out a little at that, and refused to shake her hand, instead holding onto Bea with both hands. He grabbed the carrier that Peter had worn and ushered the younger man outside carefully. 

His heart still raced all the way up to the parking lot. His hands trembled so bad when he put Bea into her carseat that Peter had to help him strap her in.  
“I can drive,” he offered and Wade was torn. His nerves were in shambles and the full adrenaline rush would hit him any second now, making him a shivering, sweating mess.  
“Alright, but go slow. And tell me when the meds kick in,” Wade pleaded, hearing his own voice too high pitched. 

 

They drove home and walked up to their apartment in silence and the first thing Peter did was call Matt, while Wade brought little Bea to her crib and rocked it until she fell asleep.  
“Hey, it’s the Parkers,” Peter said with a wink at Wade, who grinned widely when he heard it.  
_“Good evening you two. I could find out some thing that are going on between SHIELD and the Avengers that might interest you,”_ Matt’s voice came out of the phone, which Peter had set to speaker. He sat down on the sofa next to the little phone table, and gestured for Wade to come to him once Bea was asleep.  
“Dr. Dearing said some things changed between the departments?” Peter prompted and Matt hummed in agreement.  
_“Kind of. So the Avengers hacked into SHIELD’s data when they had the sample taken from Beatrice. And then they used the DNA analysis of the sample to check on her powers – but nothing else. And what I could find out ... well, the very same day the Avengers requested to obtain the sample, and all remaining ones from Bea, or they would instigate a raid on SHIELD property nearby until they found it.”_  
An ice cold shudder washed over Peter’s back and he feared that now the Avengers weren’t on their side anymore.  
“Why did they want the sample?” he asked with a hollow voice, and Wade finally sat next to him.  
_“I'm not sure. They destroyed it. Every last bit. Kept only her DNA sequence saved on a high security drive.”_  
“So that’s why SHIELD couldn’t give the doctor any more intel or stuff to work with,” Wade concluded and their was a calculating look in his eyes.  
_“Yes, but I don’t think she has anything to do with it. SHIELD hired her not even a year ago and now she’s not getting anymore resources from them.”_  
“How did you find out about all this? Did the Avengers tell you?” Peter wanted to know, leaning against the back of the couch heavier now, feeling the weight of the medicine bear down on his mind.  
_”Some of it. Asked me to keep it confidential, of course, so I never told you anything. - Other things, I ... I found out with a bit of detective work. I figured it was neccessary to our case.”_  
Wade scratched his chin, his eyes cast up deep in thought, then he turned to the phone again.  
“Do you think we should talk with the Avengers? It seems like we’re slowly working against each other. Things are a bit too secretive for my liking, if you get what I mean.”  
_“Yeah, I understand,”_ Matt answered on the other end of the line. _“Maybe we should think about meeting with them. All of us. We should disclose a lot of things, but I’m not quite sure what agenda the Avengers are following.”_  
“Me neither, but I’d rather know now than later. Especially when it’s about Bea. They said they were on our side, but now they get SHIELD mad at us and more or less force them to test around with her again,” Wade said and seemed angry, but to Peter his voice got further and further away as his eyelids drooped.

He heard Matt’s voice say something again, but could barely concentrate on it, before he just slipped away into sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D  
> Another chapter right from broken-leg-prison (I srsly can't leave my house, I will die of boredom soon XD).   
> In today's chap, Wade and the doctor go head to head and we'll get to know some more of what the Avengers have planned.   
> Hope you like it, enjoy <3

The next day went by a lot easier than any of the others that week. Peter slept so peaceful that Wade dared to sleep next to him – he’d missed his spider so much at night. The baby monitor was on the nightstand on Wade’s side of the bed and he was up the moment Bea cried, so that he could calm her down before she woke Peter up.   
They managed to let the young hero sleep until Wade had prepared breakfast.   
Wade served it in bed and they watched some silly early morning reruns of sitcoms while eating breakfast, cuddling together and talking softly while Bea slept off her first milk induced coma of the day.   
The Merc had gotten Peter’s medicine on his first walk with Bea – and he would readily admit that he loved the carrier as well – when the stores and pharmacies had just opened up. So he placed a tiny round pill in the young man’s palm in the middle of their meal, so the food would prevent Peter’s stomach from getting upset.   
“Thank you, honey,” he said and washed it down with a few sips of water. “How’s Bea?”  
“Perfect, the little cutie. Only pooped herself once that night, very considerate.”  
Peter actually laughed at that, a quiet, tired sound, but Wade loved to hear it because it was genuine. He thought he might accept this doctor when she helped Peter like this. 

They even managed to be on the very minute for their appointment with the doctor that day.   
It turned out that Bea had just the tiniest of healing factors, which would maybe let a broken bone heal a little quicker than normal, but that was about it. And her blood had reacted well to the vaccines, so they could give her the most common ones and prevent her from getting sick.   
Wade registered all this. Yeah, there was some reasonable part of his brain that was okay with all this information.   
Still, having the doctor talk about healing factors and medications made him so sick to his stomach and sweat break out on his back and palms. He felt his pulse thump heavily against his neck, but he tried desperately to ignore it for Bea’s sake. If it wasn’t for her, he’d have made a run for it the moment the doctor put on a pair of thin glasses, that for some reason freaked the living fuck out of him.   
Peter sat next to them with an even expression, but Wade knew that the pills made him sleepy. If he sat still too long, he’d just fall asleep, but if he had work to do the pills let him concentrate better, and he seemed overall happier.

They scheduled the next few appointments and when Bea would get her first few shots. Peter penciled everything into their calendar neatly. When they were done, Wade hoped that hey could just leave with Bea, but of course the doctor had to object.   
“Mr. Wilson, would you mind us talking a little? In private or not, however you like,” she said with her stupidly soft voice and a cold shiver ran over Wade’s back. He held onto Bea tighter, who readily cuddled up to him, and tried to calm himself down with her super cute baby smell.  
“I mind a lot, you know that,” he growled in a low voice, not wanting to disturb Bea by shouting. Peter looked up at him, and placed a gentle hand on the older man’s knee.   
“I’d really like to ask you a few questions if that’s okay. We can stay just like this if you prefer.”  
Wade just uttered a noise anywhere between agreement and disagreement and leant back as far as he could, holding onto Bea like she was his lifeline. Well, maybe she really was, he thought. His personal, tiny, cute, blubbering lifeline. 

“How do you feel about having Bea in your home?”  
Wade scowled at her, and took his sweet time with an answer, because he was so occupied with finding out where the trap was. What he could possibly answer to have her take Bea away from him.   
“She’s great,” he just said, ready to defend his family if she so much as moved an inch. Wade watched closely as she scribbled something on a tablet, then looked up at him again.   
“How do you feel about coming here?”  
“Why you askin’ those stupid questions, you know damn well already.”  
Her eyebrows went up just a little, then she scribbled something again.  
“Would you prefer if we met in a regular office? Or in your home, maybe?”

Peter’s hand on his knee tightened when the young hero felt all of Wade’s muscles tense as the doctor offered to come into their house. His breathing quickened and his fingers itched for some of the daggers hidden in his jacket.  
“I swear to god if you-“  
“Wade.”  
The Merc ducked under Peter’s soft, but resolute voice. Usually he didn’t interfere when Wade got scared or angry, but the Merc guessed his lover did it for Bea. And Wade was pretty thankful for that, because it got harder for him to think.  
“I wouldn’t prefer that,” Wade said instead and Peter patted his knee a little.   
She wrote something again and Wade wanted nothing more than to take her stupid tablet and throw it onto the next wall.   
“Could you please take off your gloves?” she asked, because Wade was still wearing his usual black leather gloves, the ones that were so worn that the material felt super soft against his skin. They’d once been obscenely expensive, but Wade thought it was a great investment.   
“No.”  
“Why not?”  
Was she challenging him? Really? Now, that woman had some serious balls.  
“Because fuck you, that’s why.”  
“Wade!”  
“What?!”   
Peter shot him a look that had Wade huff and look to the ground, his lips pressed into a thin line.   
The doctor spoke again as if nothing happened, but her voice was a lot softer now, almost soothing.   
“Mr. Wilson, I can help you.”  
Wade’s head snapped up and he wanted to shout, to yell and throw the table at her, but Peter’s fingers all but digging into his thigh kept him from it.  
“I’d really like to help you with whatever things bother you. And ... well, maybe it would be good for Bea, too? She would want you around for a while, wouldn’t she?”

Wade stared at Dr. Dearing for a moment. Then he got up, Bea still in his arms, and left the room without another word. 

 

Peter and the doctor stayed behind, the younger man sighed tiredly.   
“He’s a bit sensitive about that,” he mentioned, reaching for the diaper bag and wanting to leave as well, because he actually craved a nice bed. Dr. Dearing gestured for him to stay a moment longer.  
“Mr. Parker, could you tell me something about Mr. Wilson’s health? I tried to get some information, but what little info SHIELD has unrestricted of him, doesn’t say much about his past.”  
Peter felt his eyes narrowing, and his fingers fiddled with the shoulder strap of the diaper bag.   
“He’s been very sick. And not been treated well at all by doctors. But that’s all I’m going to tell you, because I won’t do anything that Wade doesn’t approve of. He’s here for Bea and me, and for that, I’m incredibly grateful for. With all he went through, it would be understandable if he just brought us here and waited in the parking lot or something.”  
Dr. Dearing nodded, but said nothing more than a soft goodbye when Peter got up and went outside as well. 

He found Bea and Wade in the car, where the Merc sat in the backseat, with his legs out the open door. Strong arms were closed around the tiny baby as he held and kissed her, hid his face behind her and tried to breathe.   
“Should I drive?” Peter asked softly, placing both hands on Wade’s shoulders and rubbing his thumbs in slow circles.   
“No, I got this.”  
Peter nodded, letting one hand stroke over Bea’s head. A little hand peeked out over Wade’s muscular arm and Peter gently tickled the chubby fingers, smiling when Bea opened and closed her hand as if to try and hold him.   
“Take your time. Can I put Bea in the seat?” Peter asked, because he knew Bea was calming Wade down. But the Merc nodded and let Peter take the little girl and strap her into the carseat. There were some toys dangling from the top of it which Peter now rattled a bit so that Bea could look at them. She always got so impatient when he wasn’t fast with all the buckles, which Peter never was. There were just too many straps and things to get around her body, and Peter did take things a little slower just to be thorough. 

By the time he had the little girl all secure, Wade stated that he was felling better and wanted to take them home.  
“Tell me if you want to switch,” Peter asked, as he sat in the backseat and buckled up as well and offered Bea a little stuffed toy to hold. She hugged it with both hands, which made Peter grin, and then quickly let her eyes droop as soon as Wade started the motor.

 

Back home Peter watched as Wade went around the house in silence, turning on all their security systems one after another. The young hero took care of Bea, who was already up again. He placed a thick blanket on the floor and put her on it, right under a half-moon shaped ring with toys dangling from it. He also put on a CD with songs for her.

When Wade let himself fall on the sofa, his tired eyes trained on Bea, Peter sat next to him and put an arm around him carefully. The Merc leaned against him and soon placed his bald head on Peter's shoulder.  
“I'm sorry,” he mumbled, voice strained that Peter wondered if he had a headache.   
“You don't need to be sorry, honey. You did very good.”  
Wade shook his head slowly, his fingers tangling into the hem of Peter's shirt.  
“No, I've … I've probably made a fool of myself. And what if she's all 'omg that weirdo and a baby, no way' and then she's gonna take Bea-”  
“No, no, Wade, sshhh,” Peter quickly said, hugging his lover close. “She's not gonna take Bea from us, she promised. Also, I don't even think she can. With the contract and all. It's the Avengers who have power over Bea, SHIELD just wishes to have it.”  
“That's not helping,” the older man muttered darkly and Peter's eyes flicked to the little girl on her playmat when he thought of the conversation Wade's had with Matt the other day.   
“Hey, what did you talk about with Matt yesterday?”  
“On the phone?”  
“Yeah.”  
Wade shrugged his shoulders, maybe thought about not telling Peter at all, but the younger man insisted with a tap on Wade's shoulder.   
“Uh, you know. This and that. You know that he found out how the Avengers got rid of Bea's blood sample, and they may or may not have hacked into SHIELD's mainframe already and gotten rid of the more recent one.”  
“I know, but why? This is just making things harder for us,” Peter replied, not wanting them to take any more of Bea's blood, if he couldn't be sure nobody stole it.   
“Yeah, we've talked about that. Matt thinks they might have some kind of agenda in play which will … well, get us.”  
“Us?”  
“Yeah. They might want us to get away from SHIELD, so they won’t have any leverage over us at all. Well, and they are still searching for the rest of the facilities and stuff, so they want to get some kind of system ready in case there are more children. You know how SHIELD can get handsy, when any other babies don’t have people jumping in for their custody, the agency will try to experiment.”  
Peter considered this for a moment, while looking at Bea, who was slowly but surely falling asleep again. He was kind of happy that she didn’t do more than eat and sleep, yet, because he still had to read up on so much in terms of her development.   
“But then why aren’t they telling us?” the young hero asked in confusion. Wade just shrugged his shoulders.   
“Dunno, but my best guess it they’re gonna wanna keep all that as secret as possible. If it’s in some kind of super early state, they might not even want us to know.”  
“I say we talk to them soon. Their plan might be good, but it makes things harder for us,” Peter concluded, feeling a little grumpy that they were supposedly left out like that, when it was actually a matter that very much concerned them all.   
Wade hummed in agreement, then stretched both arms and wrapped them tightly around Peter’s torso, cuddling the young man until he laughed softly.   
“Sounds good, but I say we take at least a day off. Like, spend some quality time together ‘n stuff. I’m so done with doctors.”  
Peter smiled at that, the idea sounding so tempting. He smiled, kissing Wade’s head and looking over to where Bea was now asleep, her chubby arms and legs stretched out on the mat.   
Wade giggled.   
“She looks like a starfish. What a cutie,” he cooed softly and got up. On his tiptoes, he went to the mat and took a photo of her with his phone. Peter was once again painfully aware that he hadn’t taken a single picture of Bea since they got her. And he was supposed to be the photographer in the family.   
Well, he thought to himself, he’d change that soon.   
“How about we go out tomorrow? Have a .... family day?” he proposed, seeing Wade’s eyes widen ever so slightly, as the Merc turned around. He nodded right away, then a grin spread over his face and his eyes lit up.   
“That’s ... Petey, that’s so great,” he just said, his voice hushed and disbelieving, and Peter was so glad that he could make Wade forget a little what happened today. 

Later, when Wade had tucked Bea in and put her to bed, Peter took out his camera and loaded the battery, making sure he had enough space on his memory card for lots of pictures of her. He still sometimes felt incapable of taking care of her, or like he wasn’t good enough for her – especially when his meds wore off – but he didn’t want any of this to be on Bea’s cost. And other kids had lots of photos taken when they were babies, so Bea would have just the same. Well, maybe even better photos, Peter thought with a grin. He wasn’t a photographer for nothing.

For once, they spend their evening as a little family.   
Bea was awake in time for dinner, so Peter set her carseat onto a chair at the table – of course he’d strapped the seat to the chair first – and they all sat down together. 

 

“This is so great, Petey,” Wade said for what felt like the thousandth time that evenng. He still felt a thrill in his body every time he looked their scene over. They were all together, having the delicious dinner that Peter cooked, while Wade fed Bea a bottle with one hand.   
This was it.   
This was something he’d ever wanted.   
And it was so so amazing to reall have it.   
Wade had really never thought one of his wishes came through. Well, _another_ one, because with Peter it always felt like he’d already gotten everything.  
And if he was honest, Wade hadn’t thought about childern for a long time, had almost made his peace with not having this particular, mostly secret with of his. But then Bea came into their life.   
And Wade was over the moon.   
“Petey,” he said seriously, watching as the little one chugged on her milk. Man, she could drink. “I’m pretty sure this is as good as it gets. This is life. It’s so great,”  
The young man on the other side of the table grinned, his eyes bright and awake – those pills really were good for him.   
“It is,” he said softly and his loving gaze said a lot more than any words. He reached over and brushed his fingers softly over Bea’s. She opened her hand and closed it quickly around Peter’s index finger, holding onto him as she’s done so often over the past few days.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello my sweet reader!  
> Today I got an extra long chap for you guys, full of fluffy stuff ;)  
> Next chap, we're gonna find out what the bad guys are up to D: 
> 
> Until then, enjoy <3

Their first ever family day went perfectly for a change. They went out to a nearby park, took a long walk with Bea and then a break on the grass, all of them sitting on a big blanket. Peter kept his word and took lots of photos of the three of them, and lots more of just Bea. He even captured a bright smile of the little girl when Wade had kissed her cheek.  
And one of the pictures Peter thought he might just keep all for himself: a tiny, chubby hand that grabbed a strong, scarred finger.

In this good of a mood after their walk, Peter made a decision to finally live up to his newfound family. 

Peter had called aunt May late in the evening, telling her they’d bring someone special over to meet her at the weekend. She had sounded understandably confused, but in the end seemed happy to have them over. 

***************************************************************************

The ride didn’t take long and since Bea had just gotten her milk before they left, she slept right through it. Peter was glad they could use the carseat for so much, so that he just had to detach it from the car, and somehow get it out without waking her up. 

He fumbled with all the buckles while Wade got out and greeted May, who was already standing at the door, smiling brightly. 

“Hi auntie May,” Wade greeted happily and hugged the old lady carefully. He adored her so much, Peter was glad to have such a loving family.   
“Wade, my boy, it’s so nice to see you again,” she greeted, then peeked around the Merc to Peter, who just unclipped the seatbelts on Bea’s carseat, hoping to block out the view for now.   
“Peter said you would bring a guest?”  
Peter could guite literally hear Wade’s proud grin.   
”Yeah, sort of. You’ll like her,” he added more softly and quieter, in a tone that had aunt May look up to him questioningly. 

Finally Peter had managed to get her out and quietly closed and locked the car, before carrying her over to the house. The moment she saw the carseat, aunt May’s eyes went huge. 

“Aunt May ... this is Beatrice,” Peter introduced shyly when he reached the door.   
“Oh, my!” she gasped, a hand over her mouth. For a few seconds, she stared at the girl, then at Wade and Peter. Her eyes filled with tears.  
“Oh, my boys ... come in, quick, it’s too cold out here,” she said hastily and a few tears streamed down her face when she turned. Peter smiled, his own eyes burning slightly, and looked down at Bea with a loving smile. 

Inside, they sat together in the living room, where aunt May had already prepared cookies and sandwiches, and her absolutely amazing hot cocoa could be smelled from the kitchen.  
“I think ... you need to tell me a bit about her,” she sniffed and dabbed her nose with a tissue. Peter smiled, so so happy to finally have his family unite like that.  
“Sure. Would you like to hold her?”  
“I would love to,” May answered and new tears welled up as Peter placed the bundled up baby into her arms.   
“Well ... uhm ...” Wade wanted to begin, but stopped, looking up at Peter helplessly.   
“We got her ... you know, as kind of caretakers ... because her ... parents died. It was kind of ... a rushed decision, but ... well, she was all alone,” Peter said, hoping that this would be enough for his aunt to know. After all, Bea’s origin was classified and also a pretty dangerous topic, so they’d always have to make something up for her. 

May looked up at the two men, obviously wondering about Peter’s words. After a while, her gaze dropped onto Bea again, who was quietly suckling on her binky, still sleeping lightly.  
“Oh my boys. I’m so proud of you,” May breathed, smiling gently at the baby. “She’s so beautiful. And now she’s in such a loving family. You did the right thing, both of you.”  
She looked up at that and the two men blushed slightly.   
”Thanks. I’m so glad to see you two together,” Peter said honestly, reminding himself to ask for a family photo later.   
“Now Bea knows her grandma,” Wade quipped, grinning broadly when May looked up in surprise.   
“Oh, Wade! You’ve made me feel even older!” she exclaimed, but laughed happily with Wade.   
Because of the noise the little girl woke up and Peter feared she would cry. But Bea just looked up to aunt May, who smiled at her lovingly. The little one uttered some small noises around her binky, but otherwise seemed content to be held like that.  
“You probably want to know her full name ...,” Peter said slowly, watching happily as Bea waved her little hands at aunt May.   
“I do,” she answered just as slowly, her eyebrows furrowed. Peter intently hoped his next words wouldn’t shock her too much.   
“It’s Beatrice May Parker.”  
She looked at him for a moment like he’d lost his mind, then she smiled shakily and tears gathered in her eyes.   
“You named her like that?” she gasped.  
“Well, she didn’t have a name when ... we got her. So ... yeah.”

“Peter ... I’m so honored ... Thank you. Oh, if your uncle Ben could see that.”  
Silence fell over the cozy room as they all thought of Peter’s uncle, and their glances wandered over to some of the pictures of him that were still all over the house.   
“He’d lover her, too, yeah?” Wade asked quietly, always unsure what to say in these moments. May smiled warmly and nodded.   
“Of course. Just as much as he’d love you and Peter and me.”

They enjoyed some quiet minutes together to help aunt May calm down again. Peter thought about taking a photo of these two together, but then he didn’t want to disturb the moment. And now, with him feeling better, Peter was sure there’d be many more photo opportunities.

Eventually Bea even fell asleep again in Aunt May’s arms.  
“Oh, just look at her little face. She’s so precious,” she cooed, absolutely in love with her. “You boys have to come by more often with her, they grow up so fast,” May said and gently rocked the baby, the look in her eyes absolutely endearing of the little girl.   
“We will,” Peter promised quickly, wanting to see the two together more often. “Oh, how about you come over to dinner next weekend? Wade can pick you up.”  
May looked up, grinning. “But only if you’ll let me make a nice apple pie for us,” she said with a wink in Wade’s direction.  
“Ouh mah gawd, make two, please. Make as many as we can fit in the car,” he said and hugged the old lady with a dreamy expression. Peter laughed, remembering the last time when Wade had gotten two pies all for himself and did eat every little crumb of it. After that, he’d been on the couch all day, nursing his full tummy, but he claimed he could eat two more any time. 

 

Wade cleared his throat, looking like he had to get something off his chest. His arm was still around aunt May, which was pretty cute. Peter definitely wanted to take some photos next time they were all together.  
“Actually, I was kind of afraid you’d ... I don’t know ... well, because we’re ... kinda not the typical family and such ...”  
“Wade, you stop that talk right now,” she insisted forcefully and Wade closed his mouth right away, never one to disobey their auntie. She looked at Bea for a moment, but she was just wiggling her fingers in her sleep. “Wade, how could you say that? You and Peter are the most loving people I know and I am so proud of both of you that you take on the challenge of raising a child.”

“Well, right now it’s just a try. Nothing is a hundred percent settled, but we are her caretakers until further notice,” Peter said, not wanting to disappoint his aunt should anything happen. “But we’ll do our best to keep her,” he quickly added.  
“I’m sure whoever is responsible for it will see how perfect you two are for her,” May replied pointedly, still carefully rocking the baby. Peter tried to memorize the way she held Bea and how slow she rocked her, because Bea seemed to love it. 

May held Bea for a while longer, then they all snuck to the kitchen for some of her delicious cookies and hot cocoa. She even promised to knit something for Bea, because she insisted there couldn’t be a baby on earth without a knitted hat, socks and a blanket.   
“And will it have her name stitched on it?” Wade asked, happy smiles and glowing eyes all day.   
”It sure will, and you just wait for winter, you too, Peter,” she said and both men laughed, but were already looking forward to matching sets of gloves, hats and scarves to keep them warm. 

They all spent a lovely afternoon at aunt May’s place and Peter did get to take some photos, even a full family picture on the sofa, with uncle Ben smiling from a pictureframe on a side table.   
There was also one of Wade holding Bea in his arms, the baby looking even smaller compared to his muscles, and from Wade’s soft, loving expression it might very well be Peter’s favorite photo. 

“Oh, my sweet boys, you take good care of each other and the little one,” aunt May said when they were all ready to go and had Bea buckled into her carseat. She wasn’t too happy about being in there and Peter hoped she’d calm down on the ride home, so that she would go down for her next nap quickly.   
“We will, auntie. And we’ll see you this weekend,” Wade replied warmly, hugging her and letting her give Bea a kiss on the forehead. Peter hugged his aunt as well and kissed her cheek, then they all said their goodbyes. 

 

Sadly Bea wasn’t soothed by the car at all, instead she went into a full-on fit, crying and wailing and getting even louder everytime the car stopped. It took Peter a full hour of rocking her and finally singing her a lullaby – which Wade listened to with a huge grin on his face, the traitor – to get her to sleep. By the time he put her down in her spider-web, Wade had already started dinner preparations.   
“I say we call some yummy Thai over our way,” he said happily and had already dialed the number before Peter could object. Not that he would have, since he was tired from hearing Bea scream for that long. It still made him terribly nervous and sometimes his hands trembled when she got so loud, because he felt like he was failing her. 

 

In the evening, when Bea was finally sleeping like a log after her feeding, Wade and Peter took care of the household chores. 

Bea had only really settled down when Peter placed her into her spider-web, and none of them dared to get her out of it.   
“She’s gonna be a real spider-baby if that continues,” Wade had joked but seemed no less charmed by the little girl.

The separating wall Peter had ordered had arrived already while they had visited their aunt, and the delivery men even brought it all the way up to put it next to their door after one of their neighbors signed for it. Now they only had to build it up and Peter hoped they could do it quietly. Soon, Bea would have her own little space in their home, and Peter felt every day that the little girl already took up a bigger space in his heart.   
The two men went to carry the huge box inside and set to cutting it open.

“She sleeps like a champ. From all those books n stuff I woulda guesssed a baby meant more screaming,” Wade mentioned happily, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. He looked so carefree that Peter wished they could stay in the little bubble of their family life forever. He did so well, sometimes Peter wondered if his voices were even still there, but they didn’t have much time to themselves so that he coould ask. And even if, Wade tried his very best around Bea, even read up on babies so that he wouldn’t make mistakes with her. 

“Yeah, she’s a good sleeper. But still, we need to give her her own room eventually,” Peter mentioned thoughtfully as he unpacked the rest of the metal parts. If all of this worked out – he added quietly in his mind. 

“Yeah, I thought about that, too ... I mean, for now she’s not gonna say anything against this, ‘cause she pretty much can’t say anything at all, but ...” Wade mumbled, already starting to assemble the first frame parts. In the meantime, Peter had unpacked the pink cover for the separating wall and had it straightening out on the living room floor, so they should be done before Bea woke up.   
“So ... we’ll move out? I mean ... later?” he said after a thoughtful pause, then he sat down opposite of the metal parts and assembled some connection with quick fingers.   
Wade shrugged, and flicked through the manual, then speaing slowly.  
“I thought about that, too. And then I remembered – we got money. We don’t need to do shit, we can choose. So – smart as I am – I found out that we could just buy some more apartments in this building.”

Wade rambled on excitedly when Peter looked up. “Just think about it, just a few more jobs and we could own the whole building, and make money with rents. And we could get one of the other apartment for ourselves, where Bea could have her own room.”  
“This sounds like it’s a plan for the very near future ... Wade, you ... you know nothing is final yet, right? They could still ...”  
Take her away.   
Force them to let her go and never see her again.

Wade stopped for a moment, then he studied the instructions again and went on assembling the wall. Peter reached out and handed him some connecting parts.   
“Even if ... it’s still a good investment for the future. We got what we got, why not use the money to buy appartmens. You still need a job after uni, if it ... doesn’t work out ... with Bea ... I mean, you could handle all the organization stuff and accounting for the appartments while I go on jobs. And if it does work out, well – the Avengers won’t take me in until I stop killing for money, so win win.”  
“Yeah,” Peter said slowly.   
“Hey why you lookin’ so surprised?” Wade asked in amusement now, while turning a screwdriver in his hands. He seemed so unsure now and Peter realized that that might not have been the reaction he’d expected.  
This was something big for Wade, something _huge_ actually, planning a life where he might not have to work as a Merc. Something he’d dreamed of for years and years, long before he and Peter got married even.   
A loving smile spread over Peter’s lips. Finally, all of Wade’s wishes were at least possible to fulfill, and Peter promised to himself that he would fight for it. For everything Wade deserved and for their little family.  
“I... it’s just ... you’re making plans. For our future as a family,” he said gently, feeling his heart flutter just like when they first fell in love with each other.   
Peter could feel it – they were at the crossroads to a new chapter in their relationship. 

 

“I am, I guess,” Wade replied shortly, not wanting to admit that he was a little embarrassed ... and blushing, but he hoped Peter wouldn’t see it. “So we gonna buy another place here?” he asked hopefully, a tingle in his stomach because for the first time in years he felt like he’d had a good idea.   
This was something that maybe kinda sorta someday could actually happen. It wasnt just one of his weird dreams again, because Bea was already there and she would be the magic spell that could make every wish in Wade’s life come true.   
He grimaced, because for some reason his thoughts had gotten just terribly sappy since the little one was in his life.   
**Dude, you’re total lovey-dovey parent now. LAME! Kill something, c’mon! For old times sake!**  
 _Stop it. Maybe we’re just exploring out poetic side. Which we might as well just do with killing, but-_  
 **A-HA, so you’re bored, too!**  
Wade ignored his voices just like the days before. Instead he concentrated on Peter, who now smiled at him softly. 

“I think we are. But I do have one condition.”  
“Bring it,” Wade said, grinning and securing the first few beams into the construction. Peter moved over and held the whole thing in place while Wade worked around him.   
“I want to participate. I’m earning enough money with The Avengers on the side now, so I want to pay, too. – Oh, and I would want for both of us to be the owners, so in case something happens we’re safe.”  
Wade didn’t object to that, but Peter knew he would soon enough. He always wanted to pay the bigger things all by himself, since he made the most money and didn’t want to burden Peter with it. Besides, Peter would soon have his student loan to pay off, and Wade had kind of secretly been stashing money away to help Peter pay for it.   
At least something useful he could do in the relationship. Peter was the responsible one of them, but at least Wade was better at changing diapers now, so he could also help with that. 

”We should Matt do some lawyer-ish stuff so that Bea is also taken care of and gets all our money if something happens,” he mentioned then and Peter nodded.   
“Yes. And we ... should make some arrangements for her future.”  
“After we get the full custody or now?”   
“Let’s look into it. It’s good to have something ready the moment SHIELD gives us custody,” Peter replied, for some reason not trusting the agency to stand to their word. And if they did, he wasn’t one to wait around, he would get all the documents they could ever need so that nobody could take this little one out of their lifes again.   
The second they officially got Bea, Wade would shove all those fricking papers so far up SHIELD’s asses.   
“All set, isn’t it? I think we can lift it up,” Peter interrupted his thoughts and Wade nodded. Within minutes they had the separating wall put up around Bea’s area, giving her at least a bit more privacy. 

 

Even later, when the night had long since settled over the city, Wade and Peter went into the bedroom. The older man closed the door behind them and teasingly hooked two fingers into the waistband of Peter’s shorts.  
It was all the young hero was still wearing, since the rest of his clothes had gotten milk on them a while ago and he didn’t bother dressing again since they went to bed anyways.   
“Hey,” Wade began, smiling when he saw how Peter looked at him. His beautfil eyes glistened and he looked relaxed and calm. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”  
“I’m glad I got you two,” Peter replied almost instantly, and Wade knew what he meant to say with that. That Bea and Wade were Peter’s lifeline, without them, he wouldn’t do so well.   
“We’re always here for you,” the Merc promised and slowly bent down to place a chaste kiss on Peter’s lips.   
He’d expected for Peter to lean back again after one, maybe two kisses, but instead Wade found that slim arms were placed around his shoulders. 

Wade lost track of exactly how long they just stood in the middle of their bedroom, kissing until they were both out of breath, only to gasp in a few and then dive back into each other’s mouths.   
He wanted to touch Peter, _everywhere_ , wanted to kiss every inch of skin he could find, but he tried hard not to go too fast. Wade still remembered the last time he even so much as kissed Peter and the younger man had burst into tears for hours, too overwhelmed with his lingering shock from the mission. 

So he held himself back, letting Peter take the lead as he slowly tugged Wade’s shirt off and guided him over to the bed. Wade knew it could be over any minute, was kind of prepared to see tears again flowing over peter’s cheeks, but nothing of that sort happened.   
“We ... we can stop ...,” he tried to say between kisses, and Peter just hummed in agreement.   
“I know,” came the hurried answer before Peter grapped his shoulders and let himself fall back onto the bed, only uttering a little oof sound as Wade’s heavy body landed right on top of him. “Don’t wanna.”

“Okay ... good ... good ...,” the Merc said between more kisses, moaning when Peter’s tongue traced his bottom lip. God, he loved this. Those little gestures always were his undoing when it came to Peter.   
Well, everything basically made him crazy when Peter was involved, to be true.   
But especially the way the younger man now bucked his hips, grinding his against Wade’s.  
“But ... tell me ...,” Wade pleaded before he whined, because of course Peter would choose this moment to reach down and grab Wade’s butt, knead it hard.   
“Mh-hm,” Peter just sighed, with his lips pressed to Wade’s neck, making his eyes roll all the way back into his skull.

 

In the living room area, behind the little closed off space that was now Bea’s improvised nursery, everything was silent. The little girl slept peacefully, wrapped up in her warm bed. The only noises in the apartment were coming from the bedroom, where Peter lay gasping an writhing under Wade’s lips.   
Wade had all but begged Peter to let him take over, make his lover feel good, and Peter had just sunk to the bed with a lazy, satisfied smile on his pretty lips.   
“You still good?” he asked the moment he’d let Peter’s hard cock slip out of his mouth. Wade licked his lips and looked at it, admired the soft skin slowly reddening more, contemplating if he wanted to just suck Peter off tonight.   
“Yeah, all good, very good,” Peter huffed out and Wade laughed, giving him one last lick and then crawling back up that perfect, lithe body again.   
“I wanna-“ Wade began and stopped himself, because he wondered if he was being too pushy, if he should take things slower with Peter. Given his condition-   
“Get some lube? Yes, you should,” the younger man interrupted his toughts and Wade breathed out a laugh.   
”Whoa there, okay,” he giggled and reached over to the nightstand. 

Wade watched Peter’s eyes darken the moment a scarred hand closed around the seethrough bottle, and he spread his legs to either side of Wade’s hips as the Merc drizzled some onto his fingers.   
“You ready?” Wade asked, just to make sure – and, yes, because he was super paranoid of making Peter cry again.   
“Yes,” his lover just whispered, pupils blown wide with lust and anticipation.   
Wade smiled, and reached down after pecking another loving kiss to Peter’s lips, then-

 

A pitiful little sound coming out of the baby monitor let Wade stutter to a stop, but Peter pushed himself against his hand already.   
“Wade, please ...,” he huffed, sounding strained and wanton. “Go on, please ... I’m ... she won’t,” he mumbled, but the moment Wade leant back down to continue, it got worse.

The very next moment Bea woke up fully, wailiing and crying loudly. 

“Oh no,” Wade sighed regrettfully, feeling all the heat of the last minutes leave his body at the sound. Peter fell back onto the bed with a groan, rubbing both hands over his eyes.   
Looking down between them, Wade sighed once more deeply when he saw that ... yep ... a crying baby could make his boner vanish in seconds, apparently. 

“I got this, you just ... I dunno, carry on or somethin’ – tag, you’re it,” he said quickly and smirked at Peter’s tired laugh.   
Wade all but jumped out of the bed, cursing in his mind at the fucking time not being on their side and fishing for his boxers and a shirt, which he quickly pulled on. On the bed, left alone now, Peter was lying face-down, looking utterly defeated.   
The Merc hissed when even the soft material of his boxers touched his skin, but he forced himself to hurry into the bathroom and sanitize his hands. 

A few seconds later, Wade was standing at Bea’s crib, carefully lifting the little girl out of it.   
“Hey, little sweetie, what are you cryin’ about? It better be somethin’ important ‘cause I gave up some hella good booty for ya,” he cooed, smiling gently when Bea cuddled up to him. Then he knew what was going on, because there was no way anyone wouldn’t have smelled that.   
“Ugh, how can such a small person poop so much? Huh? Please explain, you gotta reveil the secret of your crazy digestive powers to me,” Wade babbled, while putting Bea down on the changing table and quickly undoing her onesie and getting rid of the soiled diaper. By now, he could rightfully claim to be an absolute pro at changing diapers, having his little girl’s butt clean in under a minute.   
“So, you gonna sleep now? It’s not time for food, yet.”  
Wade gingerly placed Bea into her bed again, but as soon as she touched the sheets, she cried again, obviously not in the mood for lying down again. She flailed her little arms and legs, when Wade rubbed her stomach and tried to tuck the sleeping bag back around her.   
“Aw, little Bea, what is it? Should I sing you a song? Nah, that’d maybe only make it worse.”

Wade started to play her a song on a little lullaby box, but it didn’t help either. 

 

Eventually, Wade just gave up and brought Bea to the kitchen, where he prepared a bottle of formula for later. Then he carried her over to the bedroom, shoving the door open with a foot.   
“I hope you’re dressed!” he sing-songed.   
“I am,” Peter answered lazily. He’d cleaned himself up, pulled on a pair of shorts and climbed into bed already, now smiling when he saw his family in the doorway. Bea was cuddled up on Wade’s naked chest, but she uttered small, distressed whines.   
“Good, ‘cause someone’s not sleepy at all,” Wade said apologetically and put the little girl down on Peter’s chest. She whined some more, but when Peter slowly patted her back in that rythm that she apparently liked best, she got quieter.   
“I know ... and I can hear you over the monitor, you know?” he said with a grin, hugging Bea close. “Can’t sleep, little one?” Peter asked softly, stroking over Bea’s head with his other hand, smiling up at Wade when she gurgled. 

A very grumpy Bea, who got louder again the closer her feeding time was, stayed with them for the rest of the night. Peter fed her the bottle in bed and rolled his eyes playfully when Wade mentioned he looked like he’d just given birth.   
“I’m not even gonna ask.”  
“No, but, like, so happy and stuff,” Wade added, handing Peter a towel to put under Bea’s head before he burped her. As expected, a big mouthful of milk formula was burped onto Peter’s shoulder.   
“Well, I am happy. With you two here and safe.”  
“Yeah, it’s weirdly great, huh?” Wade grinned and Peter, who now gently rocked Bea, laughed softly.   
“It is.”

About half an hour later, all three of them were in bed, Peter and Bea had just fallen asleep. The little one was sleeping stretched out on a pillow, Peter’s hand on her stomach. Wade felt sleep tug heavily on him, but he did take the opportunity and reached for his phone, carefully activated it under the covers – no light now, or they would wake up – and snapped a photo.  
He saved it just for himself and even programmed it as his background for personal data.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Good news, I can "walk" again. Bad news, it's so slow that a granny with a walker passed me yesterday on my way to the doctor's ... I'm pretty sure I've generated a disturbance in time-space and am now hobbling around in my own bubble of slow-motion :P
> 
> Anyways, today's chap is a bit shorter, but there's still a lot going on ;) Hope you like it!  
> Enjoy <3

On a sunny Monday morning, the Parker household was busier than ever. Since they’d taken a few nice days for themselves, somehow their household chores had piled up like crazy.   
There were some bottles waiting to be cleaned on the counter, dirty laundry everywhere and Bea had somehow also managed to puke on her playmat when her latest milk had come back up. All in all she wasn’t a very happy camper that morning, she just cried all the time and seemed cranky.   
“C’mon, how about a nice little trip to the park? Would that cheer you up?” Wade cooed, as he walked around with a wailing Bea on his arm. Peter had just gotten out of a super quick shower – because Bea, she was such a talent, had also managed to puke on him.  
“Petey, let’s try and get her out,” Wade offered, smiling allthough Bea wasn’t calming down yet. He was always so patient with her, while it still made Peter’s skin crawl to hear her cry like that. 

 

“You mind going for a walk with Bea? On your own?” Peter asked with a grimace. He didn’t like staying behind, but they’d never get stuff done if he didn’t take the time to clean up a bit. Wade sighed dramatically, then kissed Bea on her head, but the little girl wouldn’t have any of it, just struggled and cried more.  
”I don’t. But don’t let that become a habit,” the Merc teased and Peter grinned.   
“Don’t worry, tomorrow’s your turn with the laundry,” he replied generously and Wade pulled a face at the thought of dirty onesies and cloths with spit-up milk formula on it.   
“I still can’t believe all the nasty stuff comin’ outta such a cutie ...” Wade muttered on his way out the door, and Peter laughed. 

When his two sweethearts were gone, Peter immediately set to doing the laundry, also turning on their dryer and the dishwasher, filling their apartment with rumbling and whooshing sounds that would have otherwise disturbed Bea.   
He also vacuumed every inch of the place. Then he set up a play area with another mat – wisely they’d got two – for Bea and began cleaning her little makeshift room with a special solution that would also desinfect everything. 

 

A few blocks from home, Wade wandered through the gates of a nearby park, pushing the stroller down the gravel path that went once around the premises. As soon as the stoller was on uneven ground, rattling a little, Bea stopped crying and even accepted a binky.   
Wade smiled down at Bea, and decided to pull the sunroof of the stroller back, to get her some light and fresh air. The sun wasn’t burning down or anything, and he wanted her to look at the trees and fluffy clouds above. 

Bea’s eyes flicked here and there, she seemed very content with watching what was going on around. The Merc walked without hurry, wanting to give Peter some time for himself. The younger man seemed a lot better now with his medication, but Wade knew it was still a long way until what had happened at the mission didn’t eat away at his nerves anymore.   
And maybe some quiet time would help Peter come to terms with everything.   
“Hey look, a playground!” Wade exclaimed to Bea, realizing too late that she was still too little to play with anything. “Aw man, pity that all you do is poop ‘n look cute. But you do both very well, so it’s alright.”  
Wade decided to stay a bit anyway, and took Bea out of the stroller. He sat on a bench with her and had her listen to the kids playing – it was just a few, so nothing too loud.  
“Gurl, we’re gonna have so much fun soon. I bet I can show you how you can make a full round on the swing.”  
Bea smiled up at him, but she probably didn’t understand him yet. Wade continued to talk softly to her and offer her some tea, but she would just take a few sips. Right now, she was still more interested in milk, but the books said she could have some tea as well, and that it would help with digestion. Then again, she could digest pretty damn well when Wade thought of the dirty diapers.

 

The moment he bent down to kiss the little girl’s forehead, a loud noise echoed through the park, startling all birds away and making the children and parents around yell in surprise. Some of the younger children and babies started to cry right away, but Bea remained silent.   
So did Wade.   
In fact, he stared open-mouthed and with wide eyes down at his little girl. 

The shot had been given with a silenced weapon, but it was no doubt a gun that had been fired.   
Wade was so sure because the bullet was still in his shoulderblade, having entered through the back of his heavy leather jacket. 

 

The shooter wouldn’t want to risk a mass panic or a police call of someone, so he’d just had that one shot. For a panicked moment, Wade was actually unsure what to do.   
If this was just about him, he’d pulled out his own guns and fired some rounds in this assholes’s head faster than he could think. But this wasn’t just about him anymore.   
**Bullshit, shoot! Get that fucker!**  
 _Let’s show him what happens if you mess with us._  
 **You still got some of that C4? Let’s blow some shit up! Blow the whole fucking park up!**

Wade shook his head and looked at Bea again, who was still in his arms, calmly looking around.  
Trying to hide his trembling fingers, Wade hastily pulled out his phone and pressed the speed-dial, having Peter on the line in seconds.   
“Pick us up, be quick about it. You can leave with just Bea, don’t come in your Spidey-clothes, though,” he gasped into the phone, then hung up and got up to wrap Bea up in her blanket.   
The wound in his back wasn’t bleeding heavily, thank god, but the bullet still stuck and caused one hell of a pain. And it might have hit a nerve the way Wade's arm was twitching every now and again. 

Thankfully Peter was with them in not even a minute, out of breath and a bit pale around the nose. Of course he wanted to know what was going on, but Wade just gestured for him not to talk about it.   
“Just take Bea and web home with her, but take an unlikely route, I'll make sure nobody follows you. Don't worry, I explain everything later,” Wade promised, sending Peter off with Bea, after the three of them had semi-casually wandered over to a set of bushes.  
The young man nodded seriously, then tucked the baby to his chest and was up in a big tree with one jump, probably up on some building by the next second.   
Wade clenched his teeth at the burning pain the bullet in his shoulder now sent out, and pulled the sunroof over the stroller, so that nobody saw it was empty.   
He even fluffed up the blanket so that it looked like there was a baby in it.   
With the stroller he made a round through the park, controlling the most reasonable exits, before slowly making his way home on a detour. 

He actually went in through the front door, mainly because he couldn't just forget about the stroller, he had to bring it up.   
Peter opened him the door when he was just out of the elevator, pulling him into the apartment quickly and locking the door behind them.   
“Is Bea okay?” Wade asked right away, while Peter took off his jacket carefully.   
“Yeah, she's fine. Didn't even cry even though we were about thirty floors up,” he said and they both giggled, but it sounded nervous.

“Wanna tell me what this is about?” Peter then asked, seriously now. Wade nodded, but winced, realizing the bullet probably wandered around.   
“Uh, yeah, but you might have to get the tweezers and … uh … remove something?”  
“A bullet?!”   
Wade winced and nodded, because Peter had helped him one too many times to not know what they'd need the tweezers for. The young man sighed and went a little paler, but motioned for Wade to follow him to the bathroom.   
With a quick glance around, Wade spotted Bea in her spiderweb-bed, awake but sucking contently on her binky.   
“And she was really good with you swingin' around 'n stuff?” he asked again, imagining that for such a little person it must've been terrifying. Even he had peed a little in his spandex the first time Peter webbed him over New York's roofs.   
“Yeah, not even a peep. I guess she really is becoming a spider-baby.”  
Wade smiled, but he wasn't in the mood for happiness, now that there was someone running around outside shooting randomly at them. 

 

In the bathroom, Peter made Wade sit on the edge of the tub and with careful, experienced movements took off his clothes. He looked at the wound for a moment, then frowned and went to get the tweezers.  
“I might have to dig around a little, looks like the bullet moved.”  
“Yeah, I felt it. Son of a bitch shot at me when we were at the fucking _playground_. What a dick,” Wade cursed, groaning when he felt how Peter went to work right away, poking the desinfected tweezers into the wound.   
“Sorry,” he whispered, after all the things he'd done for the Merc he was still concerned about his pain. Wade grimaced, thinking about how Peter had actually put him back together joint for joint one time.   
“'s okay.”  
“Did you see anyone?”  
“Nah, I just know the shot came from behind, obviously. And I don't think they were out to kill.”  
“Because they knew you can't die?”  
Wade had to clench his teeth when Peter had to spread the wound a little to dig for the bullet, feeling some blood run down his skin.   
“Uh … no, maybe, I mean … because it was a playground. There were people around. They couldn't have killed me or shot me in the head and risk a ton of media attention. And … the... there were too many witnesses anyways,” Wade explained, having to pause here and there just not to curse because of the searing pain.

 

“I see it! Almost … almost … got it … - What the hell?! Oh my god,” Peter gasped, carefully prodding around with the tweezers until he could grab the bullet and pull it out.   
“Those fucking bastards,” Wade ground out, feeling how the foreign object finally left his body, but a gush of blood followed as well, trickling down his back in a warm line.   
“God, it's huge. Look!” Peter said, pressing a piece of gauze to the wound with one hand and offering the tweezers that held the bullet with the other, reaching over Wade's good shoulder.   
The Merc opened a hand and Peter dropped the bloody bullet into it. 

For a moment, his vision went as red as the blood on the metal, when he realized what this meant.  
“That's a fucking monster. They did know I can't die from it, because a normal human damn well would,” he growled, feeling his hand shake and itch with the wish to take out all his weapons and go after their attacker. He'd rip them in as many little pieces as possible.  
Peter leaned against his neck, kissing him softly, telling him without words how glad he was that he'd brought Bea and himself home safe. Wade reached back and cupped the young man's head, threading his fingers into the soft hair.

They stayed like this for a minute, just feeling each other close, until Peter sighed, his breath tickling Wade's healing skin.   
“We need to tell SHIELD, don't we?” the young hero said, tension and tiredness laced into his voice.   
Wade wanted to say no, wanted to say that he could handle it. That he would get them and make them pay tenfold for even daring to threaten their little girl. But he knew that this was only the tip of the iceberg.

“I guess so. - This wasn't an assassination attempt.”  
“What then?” Peter asked softly, but Wade guessed he already knew.  
“It was a warning. They’ve found Bea.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, you sweet person, you ;) Hope you've had a wonderful week so far, if not, maybe a bit of reading is just what you need <3
> 
> This chap, Wade and Peter have to deal with the aftermath of the attack at the playground, and some plans are set up for the near future.   
> Hope you like it, enjoy <3

“Yeah, we need some serious backup here. No, we're gonna stay here for now, 'cause of the little one,” Wade said into his phone. He was wandering through the living room, still topless, but the wound on his back closed quickly. They'd put the bullet into a plastic cup with a lid from Peter's private lab, so that they wouldn't contaminate it.   
Maybe someone could analyse it later, although Wade had said from the sheer size of it, that it is most likely a custom made bullet. It wasn't all that unusual for experienced marksmen and/or mercenaries to make their own bullets.   
“I tried it, too, making some of my own, but that takes one helluva lot of equipment and time, and y'know how I am 'bout concentrating,” Wade had said between two calls when Peter had asked how easy exactly it was making those. 

“Would be great if you could come over, and … get a look at the bullet? - Yeah, I'm so super funny, huh?” the Merc said and laughed quietly. He then hung up and finally sat on the sofa, not leaning back thankfully.  
“Who'd you call?” Peter finally asked, while he gave Bea's spiderweb a little push, making her rock softly in it.

“Matt. He's on a job right now, but he'll come over and … uh … work his magic, maybe. He's a bit cooler than you already know.”  
“So he's also a mutant?” Peter guessed, and Wade smiled at him.   
“Not quite, but close. How'd you know?”  
“Spider sense. Something about him wasn't as usual, but I trust him still.”  
“Yeah, he'd a good guy.”

Bea was uttering little sounds in her sleep and Peter smiled down at her, wondering if she dreamed already at that age. He hoped it was all nice things and nothing had to do with the shot on the playground.  
“I'm afraid at some point she's really gonna enjoy me webbing her around,” he mused, remembering how the little girl had just happily laid against his chest while they flew over the roofs.  
“Spider-baby;” Wade laughed and seemed a bit less concerned. Peter noticed that he had a large gun stuck into the hem of his jeans. He also noticed how dangerously good it looked with Wade's muscular, naked chest and the jeans that fit tightly over his thighs.   
“Hey hey there, you gonna do something about them eyes undressin' me?” he quipped, grinning and almost leaning back, but remembering the last second that his back was still sticky with blood.   
“Yeah, how about a shower? Or something that’s gonna get that blood off of you,” Peter said softly, not really in the mood for jokes right now. Wade sighed, but agreed and went into the bathroom.   
“Matt’s gonna be here in a few, don’t get ya panties in a twist ‘cause of his cool costume!” the Merc called over his shoulder and Peter huffed out a laugh. As if he’d never seen a superhero before.   
Although he was pretty curious, because he’d never met a blind superhero, so he had no way of knowing Matt’s persona. Also, Peter wondered if the lawyer really was blind.

Sure enough, about ten minutes later their doorbell rang and Peter hit the buzzer right away after hearing Matt’s voice. Peter didn’t really know what exactly he’d expected, but when the lawyer showed up in his usual suit and tie – but minus the cane, which was a bit unusual – Peter smirked.   
“Wade said you’d come in a costume, should I be disappointed?” he said, not wanting to waste any more time pretending they didn’t all know about each other’s superhero jobs. Matt’s head lifted and it was almost like he’d look Peter directly in the eyes but the younger man saw that behind Matt’s reddish glasses, he was still blind.   
Seemed to be, anyways.   
“I’m sorry, I just had an official appointment in the area, so I left it at home. Next time I’ll make sure to jump into the window.”

“And startle all the spidery right outta him!” Wade yelled from inside the apartment and Peter rolled his eyes playfully. Ignoring Wade for the moment, Peter welcomed Matt inside and then observed for a moment.   
The lawyer had never been in their apartment, but he found the living room area right away when Wade mentioned for him to take a seat. The Merc was just hastily dressed in fresh clothes and patted his bald head dry with a soft towel.   
“So ... uh ... this might sound extremely offensive, but ...”  
“But you want to know whether I’m really blind?” Matt finished for him, all the while placing his briefcase in his lap and pulling out a small computer.   
“Yeah,” Peter mumbled, a bit embarrassed with himself.   
“It’s complicated. Technically I’m very much blind, but in reality a certain skill set I ... developed ... helps me get around.”  
“Ah,” Peter said and smirked, having understood enough without needing to know exactly about Matt’s mutation. But he guessed that he hadn’t been born with it, that it might have been some kind of accident, just like with himself. 

When Wade had thrown his towel into the bathroom and Peter had checked on Bea – still sleeping soundly in her web – they sat to work.   
“Take a look at this one,” Wade said and handed Matt the plastic cup with the bullet in it. Immediately, the lawyer took out a set of gloves from his briefcase and all but grabbed the large bullet to examine it.   
“This was shot ... at you? Right shoulder?” Matt said, and it was clear that he directed his question at Wade. Peter was impressed, because something must’ve tipped Matt off about the just healed wound on Wade’s body. The Merc had mentioned the shot on the phone, but not where it'd hit him.  
“Yup. While I was out with Bea. While I held her in my arms. They shot me right in the back, fuckin’ sons o’bitches.”  
Matt’s face darkened immediately and he slowly turned the massive bullet in his hands.   
“No clean markings, I suppose?”  
“No. No manufacturer I’d know, either, private or not.”  
Matt nodded slowly, pursing his lips for a moment when he assessed the size of the bullet.  
“I’m pretty sure it was some kind of message,” he mumbled darkly and traced the bullet with his gloved fingers. “This would’ve gone straight through a normal human. So they either knew you weren’t human, or they had a lucky guess.”  
“They didn’t attack Wade to collect his DNA, so maybe they knew all along,” Peter mentioned, shivering slightly at the thought that this people still had his blood sample somewhere to use for their sick experiments. 

 

“Also they would never risk hurting Bea. She’s too valuable,” Wade added, hating to talk about the little girl like that, but this was work. More so, this was to keep Bea safe.   
“So it can only be a warning. They know you have her. They want her back.”  
“They may or may not know what I am,” Wade added, his fingers itching with just gearing up with the heaviest guns he got and running out there to do business.

 

In the tense silence of the room, Bea began whimpering in her web, and her little hands flailed around a moment later. Peter went over to pick her up and hug her against his chest. She seemed content enough with that for a moment, but Peter suspected she’d be hungry again, soon.  
“Do you think we should go somewhere? Or inform the Avengers?” Peter asked and tried to wiggle a binky into Bea’s mouth. She took it right away and settled happily against Peter’s shoulder.  
Matt smiled when he heard Bea smack her lips around the binky.   
“We need to tell the Avengers. But I doubt SHIELD will help, if anything, they’ll draw more attention to it. The Avengers have means to go stealth about it. Also, I think your best defence now is in public, so you should stay here,” he replied, placing the bullet back into the cup and handing it to Wade before pulling off the gloves.  
“Yeah ...,” Wade mused, his thoughtful gaze wandering through the room to put the cup back on Peter’s desk. Matt’s head turned a bit towards Wade’s steps as he talked.   
“They have so much to lose, they won’t risk any media attention. And as long as you’re in a good neighbourhood like this one, they can’t attack you.”  
“Openly,” Wade added darkly. Matt nodded.  
“At least.”

Peter busied himself with preparing a bottle for Bea, while rocking the little one with one arm. All of her bottles were just washed, so he had to take one out of the dishwasher and dry it, then get the supplies for the milk formula.   
“We should talk to them as soon as possible, then. It’s likely whoever shot might still be around, searching for us. Maybe trying to find out where we live and if we have Bea with us at all times,” Peter said, walking around in no hurry to get formula, the measuring cup, the water kettle and a bib for Bea. It was nice for a change not to be rushed by her crying.   
“We ain’t goin’ out,” Wade said darkly, crossing his arms over his chest as Matt nodded.   
“Well, can we trust a call? What if they tapped out lines? The lines of the whole block? Just waiting for a prompt?”  
“I might be able to help out,” Matt said from his spot on the sofa and now powered up the small computer he’d brought. Peter only now realized it was StarkTech, and he wondered if it was coincidence or if the lawyer had gotten it directly from Stark. 

He began running a program that looked like some sort of chatroom, but with the trademark Stark colors and designs. The only thing that tipped it off as not commercial was a little Avengers Logo at the top left of the window.   
“So you’re an Avenger?” Peter asked, not able to hide all of his curiosity about Matt. He smiled and shook his head.   
“No, I’m not ... quite suited for that ... this is just for emergencies. Mostly legal emergencies, though.”

Matt worked for a moment to get a connection going, then another symbol appeared on the screen and the lawyer told them it was a hold symbol.   
“Who’re we gonna talk to?” Wade wanted to know, now having sat down again next to Matt on the sofa. Peter was still busy preparing Bea’s bottle, and he feared the video call would be an uncomfortable one because Bea got whiny. 

The moment someone took the call and greeted Wade and Matt, Bea chose to tell everybody just how hungry she was right now, full on crying while Peter shook her bottle to mix the formula.   
“Almost done, please,” he whispered to her and rocked her, humming a song for her while Wade talked over her crying to the person on the other end of the line.   
Peter would have loved to hear the conversation, but he rather hurried into the bedroom and closed the door to wait for the milk to cool down just a little bit, before offering it to Bea. She practically latched onto the rubber top of the bottle and drank like she hadn’t gotten anything in days, which was almost comical. Peter was always baffled by the amounts of milk she could down in one day.

When Bea was finally drinking calmly, Peter slowly went back into the living room with her, because he really did want to know how the call went.   
A deep voice just answered one of Wade’s questions, that Peter hadn’t fully understood.   
“We’ve got several small teams out right now, to look into some promising leads for us,” the Captain said. Peter stepped closer but stayed away from the camera on top of the screen. The Captain seemed equally concerned about the whole situation, was frowning deeply.   
“Looks like one of your guys came too close already, ‘cause those guys’re gett’n’ their panties in a wad,” Wade mentioned, sounding dangerous and angry. Peter could understand, there was a lot of frustration and anger boiling in his blood as well.

“We just need to find out who exactly came too close,” Stark – who had been standing next to the Captain – said and flicked his index finger over the holographic screen in front of him. All six teams currently out there were lined up on the screen and Wade, Matt and Peter could see them on their computer screen as well.   
They were more or less spread out evenly, two in the US, three teams in South America – probably travelling different countries on their search – and one more far up north in Canada. 

 

“Maybe you can find someone around, dig up a bit o’dirt and get some intel on who fuckin’ shot me,” Wade grumbled. He would have loved to help, but he’d rather be turned into a sloppy joe than leave Bea and Peter alone. 

“We’ll get right to it. In the meantime, uh ... it might sound strange, but would you want to stay at the Tower? Security’s an issue right now,” the Captain mentioned and while Wade would’ve thrown his frilly pink fangirl panties on that stage anytime, he declined.   
Also, Matt had secretly moved a hand under the table, trying to tell him that this wasn’t such a good idea. Yeah, being in a huge ass tower in the middle of the city would drive Wade’s nerves crazy, especially with Bea in the mix.   
“Nah, we’ll stay home. But I’d be happy about some stealthy bodyguards for the little one, if y’know what I mean?”  
“Of course. We arrange someone, have some extra eyes on all of you,” Captain America said and Wade nodded. He would feel a lot better with having some backup, and they could be able to lure someone out and get intel on who was after them.

 

“No word to SHIELD, then?” Peter asked quietly from his side of the table, where he was still feeding Bea. Nobody seemed disturbed at him speaking off screen.  
“No, not for now. They don’t need to get their hands into this,” Stark answered sternly, making it obvious that the Avengers had some more business to do with the agency. The questions as to why they deleted Bea’s test results burned on Peter’s tongue, but he swallowed them down, thinking that now might not be the time.   
”’Cause it’d be too many hands,” Wade mumbled, having picked up on the situation easily.   
“Exactly.”

 

After that, they ended the call and Matt leaned back as soon as they were alone again. He’d even shut down and closed the computer, making sure that nobody could watch them through any tapped equipment.

“It’s good that you stay here. The Tower is too big of a target,” Matt said slowly.   
“Yeah. And there is something going on with SHIELD, they ain’t foolin’ anybody.”  
“Hm,” Matt hummed in agreement and they all sat pondering for a moment.   
“I was surprised the Captain was so ... I don’t know, forthcoming? He offered security for us right away, and invited us to the Tower. It’s a little suspicious.”   
Wade looked over to him and then smiled when he saw Bea.   
“Can I hold her? Gettin' some withdrawals here, haven't had my cutie in too long,” he said and Peter gently laid Bea down in Wade's arms. She still chugged away on her bottle and looked up, bright blue eyes locking with Wade's.   
He smiled and bent down to kiss her forehead.  
“We're gonna stay here and keep you safe, promise,” he said and it made Peter's heart sting.   
Matt smiled, no doubt listening to the little noises Bea made.   
“I think you should keep a little distance from the Avengers for now. It's good that they offer their support, but their full motives for everything aren't clear yet. Having Bea in their headquarters would be too close too soon,” the lawyer mentioned, carefully reaching out with one hand to run a finger over Bea's little hand.   
She grabbed his finger right away, her eyes darting over to Matt, who smiled.  
“And there she's got you. Can't back out now, Matty,” Wade grinned and the other man laughed softly.   
“Wouldn't want to. She's my prettiest client.”  
“Oh, I'm hurt,” Wade joked and the lawyer grinned.

They talked some more after that, making sure that Wade, Peter and Bea stayed inside if possible until the Avengers finished their search of the area.   
“I'm going to take a look around on my own.”  
“Don’t get cross-eyed,” Wade joked and Matt threw a pencil at him from his briefcase. Surprisingly, the sharpened tip hit Wade right on the forehead, making a red dot appear between his eyes.   
“Don’t get too cocky with me,” Matt said, but he still smiled, while Wade frowned and rubbed the spot on his forehead.   
“I’ll try to remember. But maybe not.”

When Bea was done drinking, Peter took her again to burp her and put her onto the playmat, so she could have some fun with her toys before she slept in. Of course her eyes drooped a few minutes later, when Matt was leaving them again.   
Peter had now also saved his number into his phone and was allowed to call whenever he needed the lawyer to help them out. 

 

“He’s really nice,” Peter said while he was picking up a dirty cloth from the floor. By now, Bea was almost asleep on her playmat, just a small stuffed bunny in her hand that she didn’t really do anything with.  
Wade hummed in agreement and seemed a bit distracted. He had just cleaned Bea’s bottle and now rubbed the kitchen towel over the already dry glass.  
“Sure, yeah. Good to have him ... y’now ... how about ...,” Wade began, while slowly switching to wiping the counter with the towel.   
“What is it?” Peter asked softly, smiling over Bea, who was sprawled out like a starfish on her mat. 

 

Wade watched those two – his family, he reminded himself. He sighed, rubbing one hand over his bald head. He didn’t want to run away, was never one to do that, but rather to fight. But he couldn’t shake the feeling in every cell of his body that told him they needed to leave.   
Now.   
Please.  
“I thought maybe we could visit aunt May for a few days. Y’know, so we can have a hand with things and ... you can study for uni in peace, and ...”  
“We’d be out of the city for a while,” Peter finished, smiling tiredly. “Not a bad idea. But we can’t just barge in like that. And she’d want to have an explanation.”  
“I’ll call her,” Wade said quickly, glad that Peter wasn’t against the idea. He finally let go of the cloth when Peter walked over to him. 

The younger man gestured for them to sit on the sofa, and Wade followed.  
“Honey, you said we could stay here.”  
Wade huffed and rubbed his hands all over his face, feeling his skin too tight and too itchy today, something no creme could soothe. He leaned against Peter’s shoulder and breathed out slowly.   
“I know. But that’s me wanting to .... tell people I can protect you two. But I ... I’m really not sure if I can, and I’m also really not comfortable with staying. At the moment. Let’s just ... take a few days – a weekend is enough – to mess with whoever may or may not be on our heels,” Wade rambled on, wringing his hands in his lap nervously. Every few words he would look over to Bea, feeling even more on edge when he saw her peaceful face, reminding him that he had to protect this beautiful little girl.   
Peter huffed out a breath and looked around, then shrugged his shoulders.   
”Well, I guess we need a travelling crib anyways, don’t we? And everything else we can just fit in the car.”  
When Wade looked over, he was met with an understanding, gentle smile, Peter close by his side. Wade smiled back at him, letting himself be drawn in by his collar, smirking at the slim fingers closing around the fabric, pulling him into a soft kiss.   
For once since he heard the bullet pang through the air at the playground, time stood still for Wade and everything seemed easy and right.  
“Alright,” Peter began as they parted. “I’ll call aunt May. Are you okay with going out and finding us a portable crib?”  
“Very much. I’ll take the stroller to the car and pack it up. Anything else?” he asked overly eager, ready to get his family to safety.   
“No, all good. Get back in one piece,” Peter said, something he always said when Wade went on missions. A promise he rarely could hold, but was agreeing to anyways. 

So while Wade got out, Peter went to pack some things up. In his heart, he was also glad that they went away, even if just for a few days. The attack was so close to their home that even if the attackers didn’t know where they lived, yet, it wouldn’t be hard to find out with a bit of conviction. And Peter could guess Bea was valuable enough for all those people to go the extra mile and then some. 

At his desk, he quickly shoved a bunch of books and writing material, as well as his laptop into a backpack – he really did have to study for university, since it would start in the middle of next week. He could still skip those first appointments, because they were just for informing them about the course of the semester. His last semester.   
Peter sighed when he thought of having to finish uni and raising a child, but at the same time he looked forward to all those things. 

On his way to the bedroom, he picked up the phone from its loading station and hit the speed dial.   
“Aunt May, hi,” he greeted happily and smiled at her voice. And she was already asking about Bea, how she did and when they’d come to visit again.   
“She’s doing great so far, just getting used to tea, which she seems to hate,” Peter joked and aunt May laughed warmly. Suddenly, after all that’s happened in the last weeks, Peter’s heart yearned for her, for her warmth and this special kind of security only she could provide.   
“Aunt May, I ... well, we ... have to ask a favour of you,” Peter began and of course she immediately offered him whatever help he needed.   
_”I’m always here for you boys. I know raising a child can be challenging sometimes,”_ she mentioned, her tone knowing and Peter smiled softly, loving her even more.   
“Well ... I’ll get right to the point, then ... Could we stay with you? Just for the weekend? Things are a bit rough right now and I ... I need to study a bit and ... well, I guess we just need some help,” Peter admitted, because that was quite close to the truth but nothing that could hurt aunt May for knowing.   
_”On, sweetheart, of course you boys can come over. I’ll get the guest room ready for you in no time. Do you need anything else?”_  
Peter smiled while he stuffed a big travel bag with clothes for him and Wade for the weekend. A suitcase would just be in the way if they had to get the crib into the guest room, and he could unpack again once they were there and just shove the bag under the bed or somewhere.   
“No, thank you so so much, aunt May. I think we’ll be around in about one and a half or two hours, so no rush,” Peter added, not wanting to be a burden to her.   
_”Don’t you worry about anything, my boy. You know I like it when you’re over, this way I’ll have someone to spoil.”_  
They both laughed and when he threw their toiletries into the bag as well, Peter already felt lighthearted..   
“I know, auntie. I love you, see you in a bit.”  
 _”I love you, too, sweetheart. And tell Wade there may or may not be some sweets waiting for him.”_  
“But then he’d run all the way to you!” Peter laughed and May chimed in. After that, they hung up and Peter grabbed the bag, putting it in the living room within easy reach when they headed out.   
He also needed to pack for Bea, which would be a whole different challenge, Peter realized. He’d never been away with Bea for several days, so he quickly got through their daily routine. 

They had a diaper bag for her, but that wouldn’t quite be enough, so Peter just got another one of the travel bags – they each had one of those for light travel and missions, as well as a big suitcase each – out of the closet to pack her things in. 

Bea continued to sleep tightly and Peter packed up clothes for her, bibs and cloths for when she’d spit up. Then a few small toys that she loved and her music box. There was enough space to even pack a tub of the milk formula, her tea and bottles. For a moment, Peter thought about packing diapers, but then he remembered a new package in their storage, so he just took this and placed it to their luggage. He would probably just leave the leftover ones at aunt May’s, so they didn’t need to bring any when they were over. 

The moment Peter sat back down again to think about if he’d forgotten anything, Wade came back in, looking happy but cautious as ever these days.   
“We’re good to go, got a portable crib and it even has a tiny pink mattress inside, how great is that? And it has a crown printed on. If Bea doesn’t like it, I’ll sleep in it,” he joked and Peter grinned.  
“Let’s wait for Bea to wake up first. She can have a bottle before we drive,” he said, not wanting to rouse the little girl or give her any impression that they were stressed. Even if they couldn’t talk with her yet, Peter had read that even the smallest babies picked up on the mood in the room.   
Wade nodded and went to say that he’d just go and bring their luggage to the car when Peter gasped.   
“We need to call Matt! Shouldn’t we? I mean, does he need to know?” Peter suddenly asked, having forgotten about one of their own real allies in this whole situation.   
“Shit, you’re right. I’ll shoot him a quick text, letting him know where we are,” Wade said and pulled out his work phone immediately. He could just have used his regular phone, but Peter knew this connection wasn’t traceable, so better when they wanted to send over their location.

 

Just after Bea’s next meal they made their way to aunt May’s house and arrived to freshly baked cookies and a freshly made bed in the guest room.   
“You’re the best, auntie,” Wade told her, and his whole body language spoke of relaxation. He kissed her on the cheek and she smiled, but did remind him to take off his gloves around the house. Unlike at any other place than home, Wade obeyed without hesitation, trusting the older lady enough to show her his skin.   
“I might just hold this little one for the rest of the weekend,” she said with a grin and Peter laughed.   
“Have her all you want. I wanted to cook for us today anyways, if it’s alright with you,” he said because they’d brought some of the fresh groceries with them that wouldn’t have lasted the weekend.   
“But only today, while I cuddle this beautiful girl to sleep,” she replied and continued to rock Bea in her arms.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Thursday, another chapter :D Today, Wade had to face what happens when he keeps things from Peter. Hope you guys enjoyed the story so far, I've got way too much time (screw you, broken leg XD) and am currently writing on chap 20 XD Lots of great things to come, so stay tuned ;)
> 
> Enjoy <3

The weekend at aunt May’s was just what they all needed after what had happened. They had some peace and quiet and aunt May could spoil them like promised.  
Peter got to catch up on his university things super early, which was good when he wanted to still take care of Bea. He worked in his uncle’s old office, which aunt May had mostly left as it had been, except that it now stored another folded guest bed in case she needed it.  
Wade was mostly on the phone for the first day, and Peter knew he was talking with Matt and the Avengers, who still worked on finding their enemies. So far, there were no leads around the city, but the teams abroad pushed further, everyone eager to find something. Anything. 

Aunt May cooked every day for them and of course she found a perfect companion in Wade, who was constantly nibbling on some kind of cookie or other homemade sweets.  
“Peter, my boy,” aunt May began when she came into the office to bring him a cup of steaming tea. He looked up from his computer – where he'd already compiled lots of research and notes for his upcoming projects – to smile up at her. “You need to take a break soon, sweetheart, don’t work all that much. And you know I’d come over and take care of Bea for a while when you’re back to university,” she offered, patting his back and rubbing over his shoulders soothingly.  
“I know, thank you. And I’ll take a break right now, in fact. Is Bea up?” he asked, because he had lost track of time a little.  
“Yes, just a few minutes ago. Wade is with her – he is so sweet with her, isn’t he?” she giggled and Peter laughed softly.  
”He is. He adores her so much,” Peter mentioned and turned around with his chair to look at his aunt. The door to the office was just ajar, so it was unlikely Wade could hear them.  
“He’d wanted a family for a very long time. I’m glad ... that he can have that now. That it makes him happy ... after all that happened.”  
Aunt May’s eyes went softer and Peter saw tears collecting in the corners.  
“He deserves it. And so do you. As well as a break, so up you go,” she said with a smile, and Peter got up right away. He kissed her on the cheek and thanked her again, because he’d heard her sing to Bea this morning, when the little girl had cried for over an hour. 

“I’ll prepare a snack for us in the kitchen,” May said with a wink, because they both knew since they arrived that Wade was eating 24/7. Peter nodded, while nursing his teacup, and found his Merc and Bea in their guest room.  
He was just changing Bea on the floor, talking to her softly. Actually, standing in the doorway and watching them, Peter realized that Wade was _singing_.  
“You’re gonna be ... the very best ... like no one ever was ... dun dun duduun”  
“Are you singing her the Pokémon theme song?” Peter asked softly, a wide grin on his face. Wade looked over his shoulder, a faint blush on his cheeks but also grinning.  
“Well, that show does have great values. And she _is_ gonna be the best. At, like, everything she wants.”  
“That’s true,” Peter agreed, watching as Wade dressed Bea, putting a pink onesie and matching socks on her.  
“She needs a Pikachu onesie,” Wade concluded, lifting Bea up onto his shoulder and hugging her lovingly. “You’re gonna be the cutest Pikachu in da world. Yes you are.”  
Peter giggled at Wade’s high-pitched, cooing voice. He was just the sweetest with Bea, and he didn’t seem to mind having her most of the day while Peter worked.  
“Did you get some stuff done?” Wade asked as if on cue when they left their room to go downstairs. Wade claimed he could sense when there was something tasty prepared in the kitchen, it was apparently one of his mutant-powers.  
“Yeah, I prepared a lot. This way, I can start writing all the assignments early because I’ll have a lot of the research saved already. And I get to spend some time with you two as well,” Peter said and a very quiet voice in the back of his mind added “if Bea’s gonna be with us, still”.  
He ignored it.

 

They spend a very lazy Saturday at aunt May’s, but on Sunday Wade insisted he’d take them all to the farmer’s market, which aunt May loved.  
Of course they were a bit on edge again, watching out here and there, especially on the ride to the market, but as soon as they were in the crowd Wade seemed to relax. It was pretty packed, so Peter was also sure that they would be safe – nobody could really try anything at this place.  
Later they cooked a nice lunch from all the fresh ingredients they bought, and then Wade and Peter decided they’d stay until Monday morning, because they were frankly too lazy to drive back home.  
And maybe they both enjoyed the safety of aunt May’s home, that nobody (except Matt) knew they were there and couldn’t bother them.

“Y'know, I really like the place,” Wade mentioned late on Sunday night, when they were already in bed. He whispered, because they had to share the room with Bea and she was already fast asleep. Peter had contemplated just putting her in the office to sleep, but then he just wasn't able to do it, he had to have her close. And leaving her all alone in room she didn’t know wasn't something his nerves could handle.  
“Yeah, it's great. It's home,” Peter replied in an equally hushed voice, cuddled up to his Merc.  
“Ya think … that … we're gonna have something like this? Later, I mean. A place where we feel like that?”  
Peter knew right away what Wade meant. Their apartment was of course their home, had been for several years now, but something was off lately. Not just the situation with Bea not having a room for herself, or even any room at all.  
“Yeah. We're gonna have a nice home with Bea, someday. Soon,” he said, but they both knew that right now it was just expressing hopes. Nothing was set in stone yet with Bea. 

“Petey … I don't wanna give Bea away,” Wade said a few minutes later, barely audible. Peter stared to the wall, feeling his throat tighten up for a moment.  
“Me neither. Is that … wrong? To wish for?”  
“No,” Wade answered right away, shaking his head softly on the pillow. “She belongs to us now.”  
Peter nodded against Wade's chest, hugging him tightly, once again so glad to have him. He didn't know what he'd do if Wade didn't want children. Thankfully, this way Peter could also fulfill one of Wade's wishes.  
“Yeah, she's our little girl now,” Peter said slowly, testing the sound of that out on his tongue and in his ears. It sounded good, felt even better.  
Yes, Bea belonged to them now. Their daughter, even if neither of them had said it quite like this yet. They both knew it though. 

A few minutes later they wished each other good night and slept in holding each other still. Their little girl asleep as well in her crib. 

 

The next morning they packed their few things up again, but aunt May said they could keep the crib at her place.  
“So the little one can visit more often,” she said, while hugging Bea to her chest.  
“Aww, that's so cute, can I take a photo of you two?” Wade asked with a big smile, and whipped out his phone the moment their aunt nodded. Over the course of the past week and this weekend, they had collected so many snapshots and a few family pictures that Peter had already planned to get a photo album.  
And also a baby book, where he could document Bea's progress.

He knew, rationally, that those were still all dreams, but ... but he hoped, still. They would do anything they could to keep Bea. And protect her. 

The ride back home was quiet, but Peter felt like they were all less tense, the weekend having helped them recover from the shock of the attack.  
Back in their apartment, Wade had a missed call on his work phone – he never left any of his phones on while driving, because they distracted him too much. Peter was actually really proud of him for taking such good care of not being distracted around Bea, but he knew telling his lover so would make the older man react shyly. So Peter waited for the right moment, maybe when they were alone later that night. 

“Is it the Avengers?” Peter asked right away, while Wade called the number back.  
“Yeah. Shit, they might have something on whoever attacked us,” the Merc mumbled and waited for the call to connect. He swayed on his toes anxiously until a team member of the Avengers greeted him, after a moment Wade realized it was Barton.  
“Hey, man. What’s up?” Wade asked and wondered why he had been redirected to the Avengers conference room, since he was usually in contact with the Captain or Stark.  
_”Hey. We got some new intel on the facilities. We need Spiderman in for a briefing.”_  
Wade thought about that for a moment, and his gaze went over to Peter, who just put Bea down in her play area.  
“Uh, yeah, how about that, I’ll meet y’all in about fifteen minutes?” he asked and Peter shot him a quick glance, no doubt wanting to know what they talked about.  
_”You know that’s not your mission, Wilson,"_ the archer said, sounding bored.  
“You know how little I care. See ya in a bit, cupid.”  
With that, Wade hung up and was about to grab some of his gear and get ready to go, when Peter stopped him.  
“What was this about? Did they find something?”  
Panicking just a bit, Wade drew a blank on what to tell Peter. Stark had agreed to let him take Peter’s place at the next missions, but somehow the Avengers still didn’t want him in for it. Fuck.  
“Uh, yeah, no. I ...”  
“What, yes or no? Are we called in?” Peter asked, brows drawn together, while he unpacked Bea’s clothes and threw the dirty things in front of the laundry closet.  
“Yeah, no, uh ... y’know, I’ll just go over there and see, you can stay here,” Wade said quickly and grabbed some knives from his display in the corner of the bedroom, to hide under his clothing. He also switched his shirt for a tight-fitting black one, that was to an extend cut-proof. Not much, but better than no armour.  
“But I’m part of the mission, they’d want me in if there’s anything new.”  
Wade grit his teeth, he hated it to lie to Peter.  
“Nah, it’s probably nothing. Also, someone needs to watch Bea.”  
“Then we take her with us, that’s safer anyways,” Peter argued, and set to get Bea’s diaper bag ready.  
“I can really do that alone, don’t bother about it.”  
“Don’t bother?” Peter echoed and turned toward Wade again, now really getting suspicious. “Wade, this is my mission. Of course I’ll bother. What is even going on with you, you’re a little weird. If you want, you can stay here and I’ll just web over to the tower on my own.” 

 

“You can’t!” Wade blurted out, suddenly afraid, because he really didn’t want to fight over this.  
“What?” Peter gasped, of course he was confused at that. “Wade, _I_ was part of the mission. I need to go there,” Peter said, but followed him into the bedroom to talk, obviously expecting an explanation.  
Wade closed his eyes briefly and decided, fuck it all, he would just tell Peter the truth. He just couldn’t lie to him. 

“They did find something, but you _can’t_ go. I’ll go for you. Please, stay here.”  
There was a brief pause where Peter just gaped at him, and Wade wondered if it was just that easy.  
Of course not.  
“And why exactly can’t I go?” Peter asked, his calm tone with an underlying cutting edge. Wade braced himself and looked his lover directly in the eyes. They rarely ever fought for real, but when they did, Wade was always a little terrified.  
“Because I told them I would go for you for the next missions. I won’t let you do this again.”

“You took me off my own spot on the Avengers mission,” Peter concluded, voice still even, disbelieving.  
“Because I can’t let you go.”  
“And who exactly gave you the right to do that?!” Peter yelled now, after he’d carefully closed the bedroom door.  
“I do! Fuck, you can’t do this again!”  
“Why the fuck not? I want to find who did this! I was assigned to the mission!”  
“And I had to fucking watch how you came back!” Wade shouted, just as furious now for being yelled at. He knew this was his fault, and that he should have talked to Peter earlier, but he somehow thought this would all work out. Wade took the moment Peter gaped at him to vent out all the frustration about this issue.  
“I had to fucking watch you in shock, drugged up, _hurt_! I don’t give a flying shit if you want to go back into this mission ‘cause I won’t fucking _let you_! I won’t! I will go for you, so ... so you can’t get hurt again,” Wade added, more quiet now because his anger had mostly fumed off.  
He roughly shoved another knife into a hidden compartment of his boot and sighed.  
“Peter, I just can’t let you do this again. Please. Please stay here and let me do this for you.”  
This last part was almost begged, because it literally physically hurt Wade to even think about letting Peter go out into something like this again. He’d made that mistake once, and wouldn’t repeat it. 

“Wade ...” Peter started, now much quieter himself, and looked at him. His eyes were shiny and Wade thought that it might not have been so good to get the younger man so riled up and talk about the mission on top of that. After all, Peter was still taking these pills every day to help heal his psyche.  
“I’m sorry I yelled at you, just ... I just really won’t let you do it again. You can’t be hurt like this again. Please let me go, I can heal,” he offered weakly, even though they both knew seeing what Peter saw wouldn’t make the situation any different from Wade. It was probably just that the Merc had seen worse things over the course of his years on the job, so maybe he wouldn’t be quite as badly haunted by it. 

 

“Wade, did you talk to the Avengers about this already?” Peter now asked, and quietly took a seat on the edge of the bed.  
“Yes. Stark said he’d arrange that I take over for you.”  
“And you know I’m very angry about it, right?”  
“Yes. But I ... kinda don’t care. Sorry.”  
The corner of Peter’s mouth twitched into a wry smile, and his eyes wandered over to his night stand, where the little cup of pills waited for him to have one every day. Suddenly, there was fear in Peter’s eyes, true and honest and so raw that Wade was scared for a moment.  
“Petey, you don’t have to do this,” Wade blurted out and went over to kneel in front of his lover. “You don’t have to, ever again, I will go for you. Please let me.”  
Wade knew Peter was thinking of the last mission, thinking of how he’d gotten Bea.  
“Okay,” Peter just whispered after a pause and Wade pulled him down into his arms. 

“I’m sorry for lying to you,” Wade said quietly, kissing the top of Peter’s head. The younger man just shook his head, maybe not able to speak at this moment.  
Wade held him for a while longer, hoping the meds would keep all the tears away he’d seen that one time after Peter’s return. Sure enough his shirt stayed dry and Peter sat up again, eyes glazed and still big with fear of those memories, but he was back with Wade again.  
“You okay?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Let’s go to the living room,” Wade offered, thinking about the appointment he still had and feeling bad for it. His only concern should be Peter in this kind of situations, but the mission loomed over both of them still. 

Wade sat Peter down on the sofa, and put a fluffy blanked and more pillows to his side, so that he could taken them if needed. He got the young hero a bottle of water and some snacks, put them on the coffee table, and then looked after Bea.  
She was still good and after Wade had put her in her crib to see if she’d be alright with that, she even closed her eyes.

 

“Is it okay if you stay here with Bea?” Wade asked, ready to cancel the briefing if Peter wanted to.  
“Yeah. Yeah, we’ll be good. Go,” he breathed and Wade was glad that Bea got sleepy again. She was extra calm today and would probably sleep and eat for the rest of the night, so Wade went over to the Tower just a few minutes after, Peter’s Avengers card in his pocket so he’d be let into the briefing room.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D I hope you all had a wonderful week so far and if not, then this chapter is all for you, hang in there ;)
> 
> Enjoy <3

Peter stayed huddled up on the sofa for the rest of the evening, feeling weak and guilty, because he couldn’t take good enough care of Bea that way. Also because he realized that moment during their fight, that he was really not able to go on a mission like that again.  
It scared him to death to even think about it.   
To have to go through something like this again. 

Bea thankfully didn't wake up until Wade came home, and then the Merc offered to feed her, since he'd missed the little girl. Peter watched him kiss Bea's chubby cheeks after the feeding and burping her, then putting her into a rocking seat where she would hopefully be lulled to sleep soon.  
He was always so loving and gentle with her, and so understanding with Peter's issues. The younger man wondered how he'd deserved someone like Wade by his side, if all he was nowadays was a big weak coward. 

 

To distract himself from the dark turn his thoughts had taken, Peter cleared his throat and finally spoke up after what felt like hours.   
“How did it go?” Peter asked and wondered at the same time if he was even allowed now to know. Wade smirked and reached into the pocket of his jacket, to take out Peter’s Avengers card. Then, he moved it a bit and showed another one underneath.  
“Wade!” Peter gasped when he saw that the Merc now had his own. “They took you in?!”  
He almost jumped off the sofa in excitement, but Wade held him back.   
“Well, kinda. For this mission. I only got a temporary card, after the mission it won’t work anymore, but for now I can get to briefings ‘n stuff ... but it does look cool, huh?” he asked with a wide grin and Peter laughed. They hugged for a long moment and Peter secretly hoped the Avengers would finally see Wade’s worth and take him in.   
“Let me take a photo;” Peter said and took his camera from the desk, to have Wade pose with the card held next to his face and a big thumbs up with the other hand. This time, it seemed, the Merc didn’t object to a picture taken, and Peter knew he must’ve been so proud of himself.   
“So, about the mission ...,” Wade began and checked on Bea, couldn’t help but smile.

“They found something.”  
Peter sat back down and nodded, having expected that already. Still, it made him feel a rush of guilt washing over his body all new, because he was too weak to help.   
“So you’re going?” he asked, fiddling with the edge of a nearby throw pillow.   
“Yeah,” Wade answered and came over to sit on the couch next to Peter. The Merc caught his fingers and held them securely in his. “They found something matching the place of the first mission somewhere near Seattle. Since it’s in the states they want to check it out first, but there is another mission planned somewhere further north, where they might be safe for a long time due to the snow. Cause nobody snoops around in waist-high snow, right. Well, nobody but us.”  
Peter listened with his head resting against the back of the couch, eyes cast upwards. He wanted to help, do something, _anything_ , but he was too weak. 

“When are you going?” he asked, rubbing his thumb over Wade’s rough skin, soothing himself with this gesture more than anything.   
“In two days. Will be gone for maybe another two or three. I promise I’ll be home as soon as I can,” Wade replied and Peter smiled and turned his head to the side to look at his lover.   
“I know. Don’t hurry, okay? Take a rest, eat something, then come back to me,” he said, something he’d always say before Wade went off to one of his jobs.   
“Of course.”  
With that, Wade leaned over and pulled Peter into his arms. The two men sat on the sofa, holding each other tight, each of them lingering in his own thoughts. 

Eventually, Peter had to admit yet another weakness and sighed against Wade's shoulder.   
“I … I can't be alone with Bea … I don't think I can …,” he admitted and felt terrible about it, because he should be there for her, take care and keep her safe. But he felt like this was too big of a task for just him alone, it overwhelmed him to even think about it.   
“That's okay, sweetie. I'm sure aunt May won't mind staying here, or you could stay at her place. You said the first few days at uni aren't all that important, yeah?” Wade asked softly, stroking both hands over Peter's back soothingly.   
The younger man nodded, rubbing his cheek on the fabric of Wade's shirt. It was a bit too rough to be comfortable, but it smelled like him and was warm and _home_.  
“I don't know … I … I'll call her later,” Peter said and somehow he found it extremely difficult to think of anything.   
“Sure, no biggie. We still got some more time. There's another briefing or somethin' tomorrow, and then I'll stay with you two another day.”  
Peter nodded again, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment over how weak he was. He thought those pills would just cure him of this bone-deep fear that overcame him the moment he thought of the mission, but apparently it wasn't that easy. Sure, they helped him get through the day and behave normally, which was great. But it was still there.  
The fear, the grief, the sticky feeling of drying blood on his hands, seeping through the material of his gloves. The ringing in his ears mixed with the piercing screams of a little baby. 

“I … I think I need to lie down,” Peter suddenly wheezed, feeling the world around him spin even though Wade held him safely in his arms.   
“I'll bring you,” the older man offered and helped Peter into the bedroom, supporting his steps, maybe because he knew how unsteady Peter was on his feet. Wade placed a soft blanket over him, and took the baby monitor from the nightstand, so Peter wouldn't be bothered by it.   
“You need anything else? Some water?”   
“No, thank you.”  
Wade's steps went further away and there were tears in Peter's eyes that he just couldn't explain.   
“Thank you,” he replied again, feeling the urgent need to tell his lover, to let him know how much he appreciated Wade not making fun of his weakness and helping him so much.  
“It's alright, sweetie. You just sleep, don't worry about anything. Holler if you need me.”  
“Okay.”

Peter listened intently for the door to be closed, but Wade never did that. When he peeked out from under the blanket, eyes already leaking tears all over his cheeks, he saw that the door was just a little bit ajar. Not trapping him, but offering Peter a safe space for himself to mend his situation.  
Closing his eyes in endless gratitude for this wonderful man, Peter soon fell asleep. 

 

Back in the living room, Wade turned off the baby monitor, because he really didn't need that right now. Bea was still out of it, maybe for another hour according to her schedule. She really slept so much, Wade envied her a bit.   
Well, okay, a lot.   
Eating and sleeping all day, not having to get up to poop.   
Really, a great life. 

Wade's smile while looking at Bea fell when he shot another look at the bedroom door. It had been the right decision to tell Peter the truth and get him to stay home. When Peter suffered like that just from talking and thinking about the mission, then Wade couldn't even bear to think about what might have happened to him had he let him go on another one. 

Sighing, Wade decided to treat himself and got a beer from the fridge. But when he held the can in his hand, he realized with a wry smile that ever since Bea was with them, he hadn't had any alcohol. Then his smile soon fell when he thought about what that decision was all about. Wade thought that maybe the beer would distract him too much.   
Maybe it would make him too relaxed and he'd listen to the voices again.   
And he was alone with Bea for now, while Peter was asleep. 

Looking at the can of beer like it'd explode every moment, Wade quickly shoved it back into the fridge, grabbing a soda instead.   
He took a sip of the sweet stuff and rubbed a hand over his bald head with the other. After about half the can and some downtime on the sofa, Wade got around to call aunt May. Peter'd said he wanted to do this, but the Merc wanted to talk to their auntie in private for a bit.  
Before he hit call, Wade looked over at the clock in the kitchen, but it was just after her dinnertime, so she would be in the living room or kitchen. 

“Hey auntie May, how you doing?” Wade asked when she picked up, smiling when he thought about her. She was just the best.   
_”Wade, my boy, I'm good. How are you boys doing? Is Bea okay?”_ she asked, sounding relaxed and happy, so maybe she was on the sofa, knitting something.   
“Yeah, she's just fine. Sleeps and poops like a champ.”  
They both laughed at that, but then Wade cleared his throat and looked over to the bedroom door again. “Auntie May, I … I know we … asked a lot of you already ...”  
 _”Oh, Wade, you just tell me what it is,”_ she interrupted gently, mentioning again that she'd always be there for her family.  
“Well, it's … it's just that I gotta leave for a few days, for work.”  
Of course May didn't know what Wade really worked – they'd told her that Wade was in security business (no other way than bodybuilding to explain his physique) and that he had assignments in other states every now and then.  
“And Peter said he wasn't ready to be alone with Bea, and I did tell him to call you and he said yes, but … well, maybe he won't. He's anxious about it, which is cool with me, but I just want him to have some help,” Wade babbled, for some reason feeling like he betrayed Peter a little. Then again, he just wanted to help Peter get along.  
 _”So would if be okay if he stayed here with Bea? Doesn't he need to go to university?”_ May asked, already having picked up on Wade's thoughts.   
“Not yet, he's got another week until the important stuff starts. I think it's be great if he could stay with you – I mean, if he wants that, I kinda haven't asked him yet,” Wade admitted and he could hear aunt May's gentle smile in her words.  
 _”Then you tell him he's always welcome here for as long as he want. You all are.”_  
“Thank you, auntie. You're the very best. - Tell you what, I'll give you a call when I've talked to Peter, and when I'm back from work I'll take you all to the flea market, how's that? - I saw the leaflet of it on your table,” Wade smirked and she laughed, but told him that would be a great idea. 

There wasn't that much talking anymore that day, because Peter mostly stayed in bed and slept off whatever troubled him, while Wade took care of Bea and the household. He really didn't mind it, if it was possible money-wise, he'd do this all day.   
Maybe, one day, he could.   
Well, he could still dream about it anyways. 

 

The next morning, Peter felt a lot better and obediently took his pill after breakfast, then began cleaning Bea's little area with a special solution. 

“So … uh …,” Wade began and Peter hummed, letting him know he listened. Bea was still happily swaying around in her rocking seat, which was one of the best things they had in the little nursery, except for Peter's webs.   
“I called auntie May yesterday afternoon. She said she'd be happy to have you two over. I can drive you tonight, stay a bit,” Wade offered and was so glad when Peter smiled. A tension that neither of them probably realized the younger man held, now left his shoulders and expression.   
“That'd be great,” he agreed, and Wade went to pack some weapons after he'd cleaned up the breakfast table. The day of the mission he'd pass by here anyways, so he would check the security system and grab his gear. 

“There are still lotsa diapers at aunt May's place, so you don't need to pack any,” Wade reminded Peter, and the younger man hummed in agreement.   
“We'll get the curriculum for uni tomorrow, so maybe I can fit some more work in,” he said and Wade was glad that he was already so fit again. Well, no doubt his meds had something to do with it. 

They took some more time to have a light lunch – some of those perfect sandwiches that Peter could make and Wade would so terribly miss on his mission – and then went to packing.  
This time, Peter took one of their suitcases and shared the space with Bea, so they needed just one piece of luggage for both their clothing. Bea's diaper bag was for her formula, bottles and all kinds of toiletries and small toys for her, and Peter took his backpack with uni stuff. 

 

Just like they planned, Wade, Peter and Bea arrived at aunt May's place somewhere between lunch and dinner. Of course Wade hadn't planned it like this so he could enjoy aunt May's cooking, no. Absolutely not, why would anyone think that?  
“Welcome, my sweethearts. I'm making Lasagna for dinner,” she said as Wade kissed her on the cheek and hugged her, and the Merc laughed.   
“You're so the best, auntie May. Love ya.”

While May cooked and talked to Peter, who sat in the kitchen with Bea in his lap, Wade made Peter's bed in the guest room. Since nobody would sleep on the other side, he put Bea's crib next to the bed, so Peter could have her as close as possible at night.   
Wade guessed that all this made Peter feel anxious even though he seemed fine most of the time. So he wanted his lover to be as comfortable as possible, which included having their little girl close to him.   
Most of the drawers in the guest room were empty since Peter'd moved out, so Wade even unpacked their things, placed neat little stacks for Bea's and Peter's clothing.   
One of her super cute, super tiny pink socks fell out of the drawer and on the floor, right in front of Wade's foot. It was one that Wade had picked out at the store, because it had ruffles at the top, right around the hem, and purple hearts on the sole of the foot. 

Wade picked it up and looked at it for a moment, rubbing the soft fabric between his thumb and index finger.   
Without thinking too much about it, he decided to take it with him, stuffed it into the pocket of his jeans.   
Nobody said he _didn't_ need any comfort for himself. 

Actually, Wade didn't want to leave, either.   
If he was really honest with himself, which he really never was.   
He'd rather stay with his family and keep them safe, but keeping them safe in the bigger picture would mean finding whoever wanted to hurt Bea. And so, Wade would have to leave them for a few days.   
Kinda felt longer now that he thought about it. 

Patting his pocket where he had the tiny little sock, Wade went back downstairs, where the smell of tomatoes, meat and cheese lured him into the kitchen.   
“There are my favourite people in the world. Can I help?”   
“You helped enough now, go sit and tell me if you like the cookies,” aunt May said with a smirk and Wade grinned while sitting down. On the dinner table there was a nice little china plate with home made cookies.   
Wade tried one and immediately gave a thumbs up, nodding as he chewed.   
“Good, then you can take some with you tomorrow,” she said happily and Wade leaned back into the chair. He once again was baffled at how perfect his life had become.   
“Awesome!” Wade grinned and Peter smirked into his water he just sipped, knowing full well that the cookies might not even last for the way to work.   
“There we go. Now, we've got some more time, would you help me with something, Wade?” aunt May said after she'd placed the Lasagna in the oven.   
“Of course,” the Merc answered right away, since Peter had his hands full with Bea. 

They went up and aunt May told Wade to take down the ladder to the attic.   
“I need all the boxes marked with “books”, please. Just put them in the far corner of the hallway.”   
“Will do,” Wade said and within a few minutes, he'd found each and every box – which turned out to be a lot more than he thought. “What're you gonna do with these?” he asked curiously while hauling the last one down.  
“I'll have Peter go through them, I thought we could give some of them to a library.”  
Wade thought about his next words carefully, keeping his voice down after he'd placed the last box on the stack.   
“Aunty May, could you … it sounds weird, I know, but … could you keep an eye on Peter? He's kinda not well.”  
Her expression went serious right away and she nodded.   
“I noticed he's a bit … different,” she said slowly.  
“Yeah, he … he's also taking some meds right now, so it'd be great if you kept an eye on that, too. If he forgets them, you'll now, because he gets nervous. But I doubt he will, since Bea's here.”  
“Wade, is it something serious?” May suddenly asked, her face going a bit paler.   
“No, no it's all good, don't worry. He just needs a bit more care than usual, he's gonna be fine, soon,” Wade said quickly, stepping up to May and taking her hands in his. “Really, after he's taken all his meds, he's gonna be fine.”  
“Alright. I'll take good care of him. And of Bea. Don't you worry,” she said and gestured for Wade to hug her. Of course Wade did, and May patted his back gently. “Take care of yourself the next days, my boy.”  
“I will, aunty,” Wade said, smiling because he had this wonderful family now. 

 

Later that evening, when they were together in the big bed of the guest room, Wade got to sleep next to Bea, hear her breaths and little sleepy sounds. Peter very much didn't mind, said he'd be happy with them in the room, and when Wade had a hard time sleeping, he let his hand travel over into the crib and carefully touch Bea's tiny fingers.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you lovely readers ;) A bit of a slow going chapter today, but I hope that we can all agree that this little family is the cutest thing out there <3
> 
> Enjoy <3

The morning when Wade had to leave was hard for Peter. Even though he'd taken his meds, he felt depressed and like rolling into a ball and hiding forever.  
But it was Bea who kept him going, kept him busy anyways, since she didn't want to sleep as much that day.

Aunt May asked him to come upstairs after he'd fed Bea in the kitchen, and he carried the little girl with him.   
“I had an idea I wanted to talk to you about,” she began with a smile and watched as Peter burped Bea and then put her into the crib, setting up the baby monitor beside her on a dresser and taking the receiver with him.   
“Is it about all those books?” he asked with a grin and she smiled wider.

“I thought we could get some of those books sorted out, maybe donate them to a library. It’s more than enough to have one of the big shelves, isn’t it?”, May said and Peter nodded, letting his gaze wander over the collection in the office, since she'd included them with a gesture.   
“If you don’t mind, I’d love to keep some for my studies. Also, our uni library would probably take some right away.”  
“Perfect, then you can do this and I'll be downstairs with this little lady,” she said and took Bea to kiss her head. She flailed her little arms around, still not all that happy with the general situation of everything, as it seemed, but at least didn't cry. Peter hoped aunt May would get her to sleep soon, otherwise she'd get very cranky.   
Before he started, Peter turned to his aunt again and smirked.   
“Come on, what's your plan?” he wanted to know, feeling like there was something she had in mind with this task.   
“Peter, if I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, would it?” she laughed and he had to agree.   
“Well, then I'll get to work,” he said with a grin and started carrying the boxes with books into the office, where he could sort through them.   
“But don't throw out the children’s books, we got someone to read them to again,” aunt May mentioned with such a happy smile that Peter's heart felt too full with love.   
“I won't. Promise.”

Peter actually laughed when he found some of the pieces, and even kept one with nursery rhymes and songs that he remembered his mother singing to him. He'd teach all of them to Bea and see if she liked the same ones he did.  
Some of the science books from his father were pretty rare, but Peter decided to keep only the ones that would use him in his studies, and left the best ones to aunt May – they were way too rare to donate, and maybe she'd want to sell them instead.  
There were some novels Peter knew she liked, so he kept those as well. 

About two hours in, the office was littered with books, but on the heavy desk there were three stacks: donate, keep and one just for himself, which was the smallest. This one also held the one with the nursery rhymes. 

Aunt May had come up to check on him a while back, and told him little Bea was finally asleep, but Peter knew from experience that she would be up in an hour again, because that was her usual feeding time. So Peter just tried to go through what was in the two big shelves now, scanning over them while he folded up the boxes again to bring them up to the attic later.   
He kept one box next to the desk to fill with donation books, which was a lot more than he thought.   
The spaces that became free in the shelf near the window were filled with the books from the “keep” stack, randomly, Peter would organize them later. 

When Bea finally woke up from her nap, Peter guessed he was about half way done, two spaces in the second shelf empty already, and just a few more boxes to go. He went over to his old room to pick her up from the crib and cuddle her, because that's what she liked best.   
“Did you have a good sleep? Any special dreams?” he asked her, as always, and kissed her cheeks. She yawned and showed nothing but gums, which was quite cute.   
“Let's get your diaper changed and then we'll see what aunt May is up to,” he said and placed her on the edge of the bed to undress her. 

Later, when they were all in the living room together, Peter took his downtime – while aunt May sat in a big armchair with Bea, using her good mood to measure her chubby limbs for a knitted jacket – and finally signed up to become a member for an online baby store. 

 

“Look at that, we could even order diapers and cleaning supplies online,” Peter said in astonishment when he saw the advertisement for a monthly subscription box. He got right into investigating a bit and ended up customizing a package just to see if the costs would be somewhere reasonable.   
“This seems very convenient. So you don't have to worry about it when you are back at university,” May mentioned, while aligning a measuring tape with Bea's arm. “You can run out of diapers faster than you'd think, trust me. - Oh, I remember there was a book on home made baby food somewhere upstairs, did you find it?”  
“Uh, no. But I have another two boxes left, so it might be in there.”  
“Yes, probably. Your mother had this, it had handwritten notes from her mother in it, a very old piece, but let me give you this advice, my boy, there's nothing better for a baby than home made food. You need to have it.”  
“Cooked with lotsa love,” Peter said and quoted Wade, because that was what the older man said he'd liked best about aunt May's cooking. They both laughed at that.

 

Their first day alone was so nice and calm, Peter felt assured that everything would be okay when he went to bed that night. He slept on Wade's side of the bed, using his pillow even, because it still smelled like him. And he could hear the cute little sounds Bea made in her sleep, and hold her hand while he fell asleep. 

The first night without Wade, after all that had happened, went better than Peter would have thought. Bea was wonderful, she drank her milk and went right back to sleep, so Peter actually felt quite rested in the morning.   
At about five in the morning, after feeding Bea and putting her down for some more sleep, Peter decided he could as well get up and grab a shower, then begin to sort through the rest of the books. He felt energetic and in best mood.  
Until one of the books clattered to the ground and Peter noticed how badly his hands were shaking. The thud on the floor sounded overly loud to him in the empty room and all of a sudden cold sweat broke out on Peter's body.   
He stood there, heart beginning to race while he thought about what was wrong all of a sudden.   
“Peter, you're awake already? Have you had breakfast, yet?” aunt May asked behind him and Peter slowly turned to her.   
“Uh … I … I forgot … I …,” he stuttered, feeling an inexplicable fear nesting into the back of his neck, like someone was watching him, aiming a gun at his head.   
His aunt looked at him in surprise, then she stepped up and closed her hands around one of his wrists.   
“Peter, did you take your medicine? Wade told me you needed some, where are they?” she asked, voice so gentle that her words made their way into Peter's mind easily.   
“On the night stand. I … I forgot.”  
“It's okay, I'll take you there, come with me.”

Together, they walked through the hallway and into the guest room, where May watched Peter as he took one pill out of the cup and swallowed it with some water.   
“Do you want to lay down in the living room? I'll bring you some breakfast, so Beatrice can sleep some more,” she whispered and took him out again, helped him downstairs and on the sofa.   
“Thank you, aunt May. Thank you,” Peter whispered, feeling the medicine dulling his thoughts already. It was always like this the first half hour and always a little scary to him.   
Every sound was far away, the words heavy on Peter's tongue. He faintly registered that aunt May gave him a big glass of … _something_ , and Peter finished it before his mind came back out of the fog. 

From what was left on the very bottom of the glass, Peter found out it had been some kind of smoothie, filling his stomach a bit.  
“Are you feeling better?” aunt May asked when he walked into the kitchen, where she was making scrambled eggs with bacon for them.   
“Yeah, a lot. Thanks again,” Peter replied with a blush.  
“Of course, my sweet boy. Wade told me you needed medicine, and that he was worried about you. He asked me to have an eye on you,” she explained, her smile fond and endearing of the Merc.   
“He is amazing. I'm so glad he's there for Bea and me. You too, of course.”  
“It's really nice seeing him with Bea. He's always wanted kids, didn't he?” she guessed and Peter agreed. They'd never told her about that, Wade himself barely spoke about it, but it must be obvious in Wade's behaviour around Bea.   
“Yeah. He never talks about it much, but I'm glad he gets to have this.”  
“After all that happened to him,” May finished. She didn't know details about Wade's past, but Peter had told her that he had been very ill and that's also why he was so afraid of doctors. 

 

They had breakfast together and then Peter went upstairs again to take care of Bea. He even went out to the backyard with her for some fresh air (mainly because he didn't want to go on a walk alone, when he couldn't be sure that nobody followed them).   
The weather was nice and Peter read Bea a story from the book he'd found in one of the boxes, while aunt May sat on the back porch and began knitting her jacket.

Since he had to wait for his curriculum, Peter went back to the office a bit later and sorted through all the books throughout the day, finally getting one of the shelves empty. There was a small stack for himself with three books for his studies, the one with the nursery rhymes for Bea and the cookbook aunt May talked about. It really had the handwriting of Peter's mother and grandmother in them and for some reason Peter got very emotional just looking at it.   
He couldn't help but think that maybe one day Bea could have it, but then his eyes teared up and he quickly busied himself to organize the books to distract himself.   
It made no sense to think of anything like this if they weren't even close to adopting Bea.

 

In the late afternoon, while he was just feeding Bea, a mail pinged into Peter's account and he finally had something to work with. His new curriculum wasn't all that bad, he just had one pretty long pause on Wednesdays, but not long enough to go back home. Well, then he'd use that time to either run errands for Wade and Bea, or do some work in the library.   
With the doors to both the office and his old room open, Peter worked on preparing his material for the first few days of uni. He wanted to graduate with the best possible results and he thought it'd be better if he started ahead of time to have some spare time later to care for Bea. 

He went to bed late, but counted on Bea's sleeping schedule to let him have a few hours to himself. Sadly, the little girl thought differently and woke up quite literally screaming. Peter shot out of bed and thought for a panicked moment that maybe something was wrong with her, but it turned out she had just completely pooped all over herself. Somehow.   
The fact that Peter was glad about that – and about it not being anything serious – said a lot about the changes going on in his life.

About an hour later, Bea was sleeping again, but now it was Peter who really needed a change of clothes and a quick shower, and then couldn't sleep again. Just in his bathrobe and boxer shorts, he wandered downstairs, wondering if he should get a snack for himself.   
Peter rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at the clock in the living room. Four in the morning.   
Maybe he should get used to getting up like this, since Wade didn't mind getting up at night to care for Bea. This way, Peter could do some household work or his homework for uni in the morning, and spend the afternoon and evening hours with his family.   
A pretty good plan, he thought to himself lazily, while searching through the leftovers in the fridge.

A clicking sound in front of the main door caused him to stop   
His spider sense tingled – someone was at the house. 

Peter took the few steps back to the living room in absolute silence, ready to fight whoever dared to attack them.

Thankfully, he registered the noises came from a key turning in the lock and stopped again, brows furrowed.   
The door opened and heavy steps sounded on the doorstep, then a broad figure stepped into the room, one hand reaching up to pull down a baseball cap. When the other hand flicked on the light in the room, Wade jumped back with wide eyes, but didn't utter a sound.   
“God fucking damnit, Spidey, don't scare me like that!”, he hissed, well aware that Bea and aunt May were still sleeping.

 

“Wade?” Peter asked in surprise, staring blearily into the light of the living room. He hadn't even bothered turning any of them on.  
“Yeah, hi,” the Merc said, but it sounded tired and raspy. He gave Peter a small smile and the next moment they hugged each other tight.  
“You're home early, what happened?” Peter immediately asked, feeling his body kick into gear and the last of the sleep that tugged on him leaving. Wade took a deep breath and nuzzled Peter's still damp hair, sighing happily.   
“I'll tell ya in a moment … can I just … like …,” he mumbled and left the sentence unfinished, but Peter understood. He nodded and took off Wade's heavy leather jacked, noticing that he must've at least taken the time to dress into normal clothes and either bring most of his weapons and suit home or leave them with the Avengers. Peter guessed the first option.   
“I'll bring you a drink,” Peter offered and contemplated for a moment if Wade would want a beer. Then he remembered that he hadn't seen the Merc with one since they got Bea. Wade never talked about it but he did like to drink quite a bit, because, frankly, most of it didn't effect him and he needed a lot to come down after a mission and forget some things he'd seen.   
Peter opted to get him a big glass of juice, with some ice cubes in it to cool him down. 

When Wade stepped out of the small bathroom downstairs, he looked like he'd splashed some water into his face, the upper hem of his shirt was wet. Peter sat on the couch and placed the glass on the coffee table for Wade.   
“You're the best,” the Merc sighed before taking some big gulps.

After he'd placed the glass back onto the table, Wade slumped into the sofa, rubbing his bald head and leaning heavily against Peter's chest when the younger man put an arm around him. Peter didn't want to press, but the need to know burned his tongue.   
“How … how did it go?” he asked, and feared the answer at the same time.   
Wade heaved out a breath, and rubbed the heels of both hands over his eyes.   
“Nothing.”  
“Nothing?” Peter repeated, absent mindedly rubbing the Merc's shoulder.   
“Yeah. Absolutely fucking nothing. We found the building, but it was abandoned. Not very long ago, but long enough for us to get only cold traces.”

Peter felt his heart sink, and he leaned over to kiss Wade's head. He wanted all of this to be over, wanted for Wade to stay home with them, to be done fighting.   
“We rolled up and ran in there all guns a blazin’. And what’d we find? Fucking dust everywhere, that’s all.”  
“But we know that there was a facility. That’s some viable information. We could see what’s around, see if there are special requirements that had to be met to build it, maybe find clues to new potential locations.”  
Wade smiled warmly as Peter spoke, but he looked very tired.   
“You call the big boss, tell ‘im that. They’ll like your input, maybe you can ... like ... programme one of these...”  
“Algorythms?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Hm, maybe we don’t need one. We could just let a search engine run through data of weather stations or geographic research groups. Or some ministry for building regulations or-“  
“Yeah, tell ‘im all o’ that,” Wade said quickly and put his phone in Peter#s hands with a wry smile. The younger man kissed his cheek, patting his shoulder when the phone beeped away in the line. 

 

“Is Bea up?” Wade whispered, his eyes hopeful. He needed to have his little girl in his arms, know that she was safe and happy. Peter shook his head with a sorry expression, but encouraged Wade to go to her anyways.   
“Just don’t wake her,” he hushed and then listened to the greeting at the other end of the line.  
“Uh, hello, uhm, Captain. It’s Peter Parker – No, no, Wade’s fine, he just got home. I actually wanted to propose a theory ... yeah, I ... yes, I do know that the information is confidential ... yes ...,” Peter mumbled and blushed a bit. Wade remembered that he actually wasn’t supposed to talk about the mission at all.   
Well, fuck it, this was about their daughter, and Peter had every right to know, no matter what the Avengers said.   
“I just wanted to help, uh, Sir. – Ok, yeah, thanks a lot,” the young hero quickly said and Wade looked from him over to the baby monitor, wishing Bea would wake up. He wanted to see her, kiss her chubby cheeks so bad, but he also didn’t want to risk waking her. She deserved her sleep and Wade would feel selfish disturbing her. 

“I’ll talk to Banner,” Peter whispered over to him and gave him a thumbs up. Wade smirked, proud of his smart lover and glad that he still got to be part of the mission somehow. He hadn’t forgotten about their huge fight just before the mission, so he hoped this would console Peter a bit.   
A moment later, the scientist was on the line and Peter explained his plan to him. It seemed to be going well, at least Peter gave him another thumbs up sign and a little smile while talking. 

Wade really just lingered around, but jumped up the first moment he noticed the baby monitor blinking on the kitchen counter, indicating sound. He all but ran into the guest room to see his little girl.   
“Bea, my sweety, I missed you,” he cooed, picking his girl up and kissing her chubby cheeks just like he’d wanted all this time. Bea babbled around, and made impatient little sounds.   
“Oof, you smell gurl. No offence, but that’s a pretty strong odour for such a little person, lemme change your diaper,” he offered and put her down on the changing table.   
“Daddy is on the phone, bein’ all smart, so we gotta be quiet for some time, okay? So no cryin’, Imma get your little booty dry in no time, promise.”

Wade ended up changing her whole outfit, because of course Bea had managed to get the diaper to leak. Wade swore, if he ever through some magic spell became smart, he’d develop a fucking diaper that didn’t just spill whenever the baby moved. Cause babies moved a lot more than people would expect. He could guess from the wet towel on the edge of the bed, that this wasn't the first time of the night that Bea had that kind of accident, so maybe they just needed different diapers.

Because she sometimes got very fussy waiting for a fresh diaper on the changing table, Wade began singing some nursery rhymes from the books he read Bea. Actually he really couldn’t hear himself sing without his ears starting to bleed. Nobody should have to listen to that, but weirdly enough, Bea didn’t mind, she just got calm and happy every time she heard Wade or Peter.   
“Oh, I know you love the next one,” Wade said and grinned, because he’d teased Peter so often with the fact that this was Bea’s favourite song. _”The itsy bitsy spider, climbed up the waterspout,”_ he began and Bea stopped wiggling around right away and listened.   
Wade continued through the song even after he’d dressed Bea and lifted her onto his chest again, just rocking her and enjoying having her again.   
It was a bit too early for her to be up, and she probably wasn't hungry, yet, so Wade just sat on the edge of the bed with her and began another quiet song for her. 

Peter's phone call seemed to take longer, and eventually Bea fell asleep again on Wade's chest and he scooted further into the bed to lay down as well.   
He felt frustrated about the outcome of the mission, but a lot better then a few hours ago when they'd arrived back at the tower. Now, Peter was maybe able to get some info out of the whole ordeal and then it wasn't all as pointless as it seemed.   
“We'll find them, little Bea. I promise. They won't ever hurt you,” Wade whispered to the sleeping baby on his chest, kissing her head and carefully stroking a finger over the tiny hand balled into a fist on his collar bone.   
God, he'd missed her. Had missed Peter, and aunty May, and the house, and their apartment where he'd for some sentimental reason turned on one of Bea's music boxes so he didn't feel so alone while changing.   
He'd missed _his family_.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello sweet people ;)  
> Sorry about last week, but I could finally start working again and then work was all over the place and I was like "ó.O wat"  
> But I got an XXL chapter prepared for you - something cute, something interesting and something sexy :D Hope you like it!  
> Enjoy <3

Peter offered to take Bea downstairs, so that Wade could have some quiet time, because he was pretty sure the Merc hadn't slept in two days.   
“She can stay here, I don't mind,” Wade mumbled while undressing to only his underwear, before he crawled into bed. Bea was already fast asleep in her crib, sprawled out on her back, and the moment Wade's head touched the pillow, he was as well.   
For a moment Peter considered just laying beside Wade and cuddle up to his warm body, but honestly, he was too awake now. Especially after the phone call with Dr. Banner. He walked around the bed, mindful not to make too much noise, and quickly took one of his pills before going downstairs.

Taking his laptop down to the kitchen, Peter set to work right away. During the call – which was a bit tricky because actually he wasn't supposed to know highly confidential information about the missions – Dr. Banner had agreed to let Peter work for him. He was busy with assessing the next few potential locations on the list already, so he gave Peter the location of the abandoned facility.  
Peter would do some research on everything around this place, every little detail he could come across could be valuable. 

Alternating between typing and preparing a nice breakfast for his family – pancakes and hashbrowns – Peter wound up with not only a filled table, but also a form to fill out with all the info he could dig up, from geographical specialities to building laws in the area. He even included a part about bomb shelters in the area that may have been re-purposed. At last he left a space for a conclusion and some data for an advanced search engine to use. He could've just sent over the last part, but he didn't want to look like he'd force his opinions on the Avenger's research team without presenting his reasoning behind it.

By the time Peter had the breakfast table set up, aunt May came into the room and was ecstatic to see him up and bustling around. She was always up early, and was probably happy to have company for a change.  
“This is such a nice surprise,” she said happily and smiled when Peter pulled out a chair for her and cooked water for her morning tea.   
“Wade came back last night,” Peter mentioned and May nodded.   
“I thought so, I saw his boots by the door.”  
Peter smiled, because Wade never forgot to place them very neatly on the mat just inside the door and never take a step further into the house with them on. “He is sleeping now, he was pretty tired. But maybe the smell of breakfast will bring him in,” he joked and aunt May laughed gently.   
Peter served her some fruit with the pancakes, and then her tea.   
“Did everything go well with Wade's work?”  
Peter served himself some breakfast and sat down, but shook his head. “Not really. But he's okay, they just finished the job earlier than expected,” he lied, which was actually as close to the truth as he could get. His laptop now sat on the vacant spot next to him, and every now and then he typed with one hand.   
Aunt May didn't comment on it, she was used to Peter working like this whenever something was very important. And since his curriculum had come in the other day, she probably assumed it was for his studies.

Upstairs, Bea had just woken Wade up, and the Merc took the opportunity to cuddle his best girl as much as he could while bringing her down for a bottle.  
“I missed her so much,” Wade said, sitting at the kitchen table and rocking Bea in his arms. He kissed her cheeks while Peter prepared her milk. 

 

“I bet she missed you, too,” Peter said and saw aunt May smile from the corner of his eyes. She had just cleaned up a bit and got something in a huge jar from the basement. Probably those pickles Wade loved.   
“Aww, look at that little face. So perfect,” Wade cooed to Bea when she suckled away on the rubber top of the bottle.   
Peter smiled, and took a stack of pancakes out of the microwave to pour syrup over them. Wade hummed happily and sniffed the plate, but seemed unsure of how to eat.   
“I'm not gonna feed you,” Peter mentioned, grinning and holding out his arms for Bea, which made Wade frown deeply. He looked between the food and Bea and eventually sighed and handed her over.   
“That was your plan all along, wasn't it? But I can't just let the pancakes get cold!” Wade mourned theatrically and Peter laughed, enjoying the feeling of Bea in his arms. She looked up at him with her big blue eyes just like she always did while feeding.   
“My plan was for the two of you to get breakfast, that's all. - It's just an added bonus that I get to hold Bea.”

After getting the mail, aunt May joined them again at the table, and they spent some family time together, enjoying each other’s company. When Peter saaw his little family like that, he could hardly set a time to leave – Wade was back, after all – so eventually they all decided that they’d stay at May’s house for the weekend. 

 

“Actually, I have something else planned where I need your help. Up in the attic,” May announced, flicking through the ads on the table and glancing over at Wade.  
“You can count on me aunty – Lemme just refuel,” the Merc said happily and got up to serve himself some hash browns and another glass of orange juice. He finished his breakfast while aunt May looked for the best coupons in the ads.

Peter had been upstairs with Bea for a while now, so that she’d fall asleep into her usual milk induced coma. When Wade and May followed a bit later, Peter just pushed a heavy looking bookshelf out of the office door, and moved towards the steps leading to the attic.   
“Hey, what's my love doin' here haulin' stuff around? Lemme give you a hand,” Wade said and Peter looked around the shelf to smile at him.   
“Then grab the far end and hold tight, I'll climb up the stairs with it. That's right, aunt May?” he asked and she nodded happily.   
“Absolutely. Be careful, boys,” she said and watched as Wade and Peter carried the shelf up the stairs and stored it in a far corner of the attic. 

“There is another wide dresser up there, do you think you can bring that down?” May called up from the hallway, quiet enough not to wake Bea, who was asleep in the guest room.   
“Sure thing!” Wade replied and they both looked around a moment. He realized that Peter must've made a pretty good work of the books, because there were only folded boxes left on a far wall, waiting for a new purpose.   
“That one?” Wade said and pointed to the other end of the room.  
“Is it the dark thing in the right corner?” Peter called downstairs and aunt May agreed. “Where do you need it?” he asked as they removed the plastic cover on it and then worked out how to grab the bulky piece.  
“In the office, please,” May said and shortly after, Wade and Peter carried the heavy thing downstairs and into the office. On aunt May's wish, they carried out the folding bed to the hallway, and put the dresser in it's space in the right hand corner next to the door. 

 

Peter couldn't keep his curiosity at bay and now that Wade was back, he just had to ask.  
“So what are you planning with the office?”   
The older lady smiled warmly at them. “Well, now that you're both here … I've got a surprise for you. I said I'd be there for you and I am, so I want to have a place for Bea to stay,”  
Both men looked at her in surprise.  
“She can't always sleep in your room and she needs a place to be changed and you don't need to carry her things over here every time when I've got all this space that nobody really uses. Also ... well, I’ll be more than happy to have her for a day, so that you two can have some time together,” she explained and the two men's smiles grew.   
“You're the best, auntie,” Wade said then and hugged her tightly, then Peter took her in his arms and kissed her cheek in gratitude.  
“Thanks so much,” he said, although he felt a sting in his heart at this kind gesture. He really hoped Bea could stay with them forever. 

“But I do have some more things in the garage that I need your help with,” May said after a moment and smiled brightly when she led them to the garage.   
“Peter, bring this box there to the office. Wade, you can take this to the kitchen.”  
They each moved to the things May gestured to and Wade removed a heavy blanket from his piece.   
And revealed a high chair for the dinner table.

“Oh, aunt May, you shouldn’t have,” Peter said surprised, and ran his hand over the seat.  
“Don’t you worry, I got it at a yard sale, actually. Yeah, the Carters from down the street moved to the retirement home and gave away their grandchildren’s spare things. So I thought ... well, since _I_ now have a beautiful granddaughter.”  
She sounded so proud and seeing her happy smile just made Peter want to cry forever. He hoped desperately that Bea could stay with them, make their family as complete as it was now.   
“Oh I get it now, it's just so you can brag to your Bridge ladies about having a grandchild – And I thought being called grandma made you feel old?” Wade asked, an amused, endearing smile on his lips while he grabbed the chair to bring it to the kitchen. Peter took the box into his arms and wondered about its contents.   
“I didn’t say you should call me that,” May joked and they laughed when she closed the door to the garage behind them. “The only one who can call me that is Bea. You’re not allowed before she does.”  
“But how should she learn, then?” Wade asked, and turned to May with the chair still in hands.   
“That’s the challenge.”  
Wade barked out a laugh, loved talking to May like this, because she had so quickly caught up on his humor.   
“It’s gonna be her first word, I promise!” 

Peter smiled throughout this exchange, but his heart still felt heavy. Probably would until Bea was officially part of their family, until he held the papers in his own hands. 

Upstairs in the old office, they worked extra hard throughout the rest of the day, so happy about aunt May’s plan.  
The box held an attachment for the old dresser, so that it could function as a changing table. It was basically a wooden plate (that Wade insisted they'd rather mount to the wall fittingly than to the old piece of furniture as to not damage it) and a cushioned surface with a washable top. The material was bright yellow, with bunnies on it.   
Alongside were some wall decals, Peter especially loved the letters in bright pink that spelled out Bea's name. Both her first names, of course, and Peter had no illusions about how proud aunt May was about her.

While Wade cleaned up the attic like he'd planned, Peter switched out the desk in the office with another dresser from his old room. This way, he could work and wouldn't disturb Bea's naps during the day. And aunt May had been right, nobody really used the office any more, so Peter might as well take the desk.  
They’d converted the office into a second guest/baby room, with the portable bed set up under the window and decorated with comfortable wool blankets and pillows. One of them could even stay with Bea and cuddle with her.   
Peter had left only aunt May’s favourites in the bookshelf, and some very valuable collectibles from his father and uncle. He even found all of his old children’s books and put them in to read to Bea from them.   
The nursery rhymes he'd take home for a while until he memorized them.

 

For that night, they let Bea sleep in the guest room still, mainly because Peter got too anxious to bring her to her new room. Wade understood, at least for one night after his mission he'd love to have the little one close.   
Wade took care of her for the rest of the evening, kissing and cuddling her as much as he wanted while Peter worked on his research for the Avengers. He sent them some data late in the evening, when Wade had just started on Bea’s night time routine, having given her a quick bath and then massaging some lotions into her skin. He remembered that Peter had read up on some baby massage techniques, but Wade hadn’t had much concentration left that day, so he just hoped rubbing the cremes in would be alright. Bea didn’t complain anyways, she even held still for him and watched him from her big blue eyes.   
God, she was so beautiful. 

“Are you listening?”  
“Hm?”  
Wade tore his eyes from Bea, but still held her when he looked at Peter, who grinned.   
“Banner messaged me back, he said they used my data to feed a specialized search engine and found five more possible locations in North America. They'll investigate as soon as all the teams are back in,” the younger hero explained and stood up, stretched so that his back cracked.  
They both whispered, but none of them minded. Peter had just shut down the computer and now sat on the edge of the bed to watch them. 

“That's great news, honey. I knew you could do it,” Wade said, leaning over to kiss Peter's temple.   
Bea wiggled around then, demanding their attention, and Wade went back to massaging her, enjoying the smell of the baby lotion. It always made his hands a bit softer, too, which was great. 

 

When he’d finished taking care of her skin, Peter watched Wade change her and dress her lightly to sleep in her little baby sleeping bag.  
“Look at these cute little toes, they are the cutest little toes in the universe,” Wade said quietly, grinning as he tickled them. Bea uttered a small sound and kicked her legs, making Wade laugh.   
“You ticklish, huh? Tickle tickle.” Again he made her kick and laughed, but apologized when he lifted her onto his chest.   
Peter smiled upon seeing a scarred hand support Bea's head, holding her, protecting her. When Wade hugged her, Bea almost vanished in his muscled arms, but he was so, so gentle with her, so loving.   
The younger man couldn't help but imagine Wade with a grinning baby on his arm, or walking hand in hand with a toddler in a pink outfit he'd no doubt picked for her. Jumping around on the playground with her, laughing, being _happy_.   
“Hey, hey, what's Daddy thinking about? What's making Daddy so sad?” Wade suddenly asked, voice still soft, because during Bea's night time routine they never talked loudly so that she calmed down. 

Only now Peter realized that there was a tear streaming down his face, and more welling up in his eyes at the images playing in his head. He laughed, embarrassed to have been caught, and wiped his face with one hand.   
“Nothing, no, it's really nothing sad. I … I brought something,” he quickly managed, sniffling once and then getting up to grab the book from the dresser, showing it to Wade.   
“Aw, how cute! It's pretty old, was it yours?” he asked right away and Peter nodded, patting the work out cover.  
“Yeah, there were some of my parent's old things on the attic. I thought … well, we can re-use it now.”  
Wade's smile, as Peter helped him scoot to the head of the bed with Bea, was loving and gentle.   
“Perfect idea. What's your favourite story? Let's read it to her,” he proposed but Peter shook his head, a grin spreading over his lips.   
“That'd be too long for her, but we can pick something shorter,” he offered, and they decided on a story about a monkey, which they read to Bea together.   
She seemed to enjoy it, from what little emotions she showed, but at least she didn't cry or sleep in right away, but seemed to listen to them until the end a few minutes later. 

They each kissed the little girl and then wished her a good night, Peter turned the key on her favourite music box and let it play next to her crib. While it played a familiar tune, Peter put the book on the drawer before crawling into the bed silently.  
The only thing illuminating the room was a little night light in one corner, plugged into an outlet. This way, they didn't need to turn on all the lights just to change Bea's diaper or get up to feed her.   
Wade remembered that Peter had told him the dim lights would get Bea used to what night time is. He assumed the sooner the better, because Wade wouldn't mind to get a full night's sleep again. Also, he really needed to do some more reading sometime soon, he couldn’t just rely on Peter telling him everything. Then again, reading was hard for him. Not that he wasn’t able to per se, but damnit, all those words kinda meant nothing after a few minutes – he just lacked the concentration for long texts. 

Shoving all thoughts on future tasks aside, Wade smiled and opened his arms invitingly, and Peter inched closer to him, settling into the older man’s arms. Wade pulled the blanket over both of them and closed his eyes, just enjoying the feeling of having his little family close. 

“I hope we’ll find them soon,” Peter then mumbled into his ear, voice low just in case Bea wasn’t sleeping as deeply as she should by now.   
“We will,” Wade promised and kissed his lover’s head. The images of how he’d met Peter after the mission in the SHIELD hospital room came to his mind unwanted, and Wade tightened his hold on the lithe body. “I’ll make sure to give each of them an extra punch for you.”  
That got him smiling in the dim light, but Peter also shrugged his shoulders.   
“I guess I overreacted a bit after you told me you’d go for me,” he began and Wade wanted to interrupt him, but Peter held a hand up, stalling him. “No, listen. I’m really sorry. I know – rationally I absolutely know – that I’m not able to do that again soon. Maybe in a while, maybe when the search takes longer, I’ll go again. But not now, it’s nowhere near healthy. And I’m glad you thought about that before I could. But it made me angry, not because you did that, but because I knew you were right, I just was too stubborn to admit that I couldn’t help Bea.”  
“Petey, you did help her,” Wade insisted, now stroking a hand over the younger man’s back. “You literally saved her life. It’s okay when you need some time after that to ... I dunno, to heal? Does that sound dumb?”  
“No, not at all,” Peter replied softly, reaching up to cup the side of Wade’s neck with one hand. It was a very intimate gesture for them, because somehow it was in either this place or on his chest that the worst of Wade’s scars wound up. Today, it was right there. Peter placed his soft fingers on that part that showed the remains of his daily fight against his own body, while the young hero admitted his own weaknesses. “It sounds very thoughtful of you.”

Wade grimaced in the dim light, never knowing what to do when Peter praised him like that.   
“Anyways, I just wanted to ... tell you that I know I’ve been a jerk to you. And kind of try to explain why ... so I hope we can forget about it,” Peter mumbled, audibly uncomfortable now and Wade kissed the top of his head.   
“No, it’s alright. I should’ve told you right away. Let’s just say that next time when something’s up, I’ll tell you right away and you won’t get too mad, alright?”  
Peter giggled quietly at that, and nodded.   
“Deal,” he said, then pushed himself up on his elbows to kiss Wade. 

They cuddled some more after that, and talked about all kinds of things, until they both got a bit tired and wished each other a good night. Wade looked up to the ceiling a while, because although he was sleepy, he wasn’t that close to actually falling asleep yet.   
Wade grinned to himself as he slowly let his hands wander, stroke Peter’s back and feel him bowing into the touch in his slumber. The young hero only wore a pair of shorts to sleep and Wade could feel every dip of his flawless back move under his fingers.   
Biting his lip, Wade ventured further, but was quickly interrupted by Peter jerking fully awake again.

 

“Wade, seriously?” Peter whispered in amusement and the Merc laughed quietly into his ear. Wade’s hands had of course found their favourite spot on Peter’s butt, kneading both cheeks. Wade loved how they just filled his hands nicely, and they were so soft, wonderful ...

“Can’t help it,” he argued and started rubbing his hips into Peter’s shamelessly. The younger man huffed out a breath and couldn’t help returning the movements, meeting Wade’s hips. He made a low sound in the back of his throat that told Wade he liked that a lot, but then Peter shoved him away – just enough to get a little bit of space between them under the blanket.   
”No, Wade, we can’t do that,” he whispered and the Merc sighed, but nodded.   
“Petey,” he said once they were both settled again, fingers and knees intertwined underneath the blanket, but not pressing their bodies to each other anymore. “Parenting is hard,” Wade complained and Peter laughed quietly, and told him to wait for the next night, when they’d be at home again. 

*****

Just as promised, Wade took them all to the flea market on Saturday morning. Bea was awake early every day, so Peter just put her into the carrier and strapped it around his chest, while Wade wore a backpack with some necessities for the little girl.  
“What a beautiful day, thank you both,” aunt May said happily as they strolled through the entrance to the place. It was a big open space, and on weekdays there was a huge market with all sorts of fresh produce there, but today some private sellers offered things they didn't need anymore.

They spent some time looking around and each of them found a little something they liked – aunt May bought a big round china teapot, that would match the colors of her kitchen nicely. Peter found a few very old science magazines that he liked, and thought about putting them up over his desk in a frame once he's read them. 

 

Wade had just tried to get his hands on a set of short swords, but the guy wanted way too much for those two, he'd get better quality on the black market for those. So he wandered over to where an older man showed off what looked like antiques, just letting his eyes roam.   
But maybe he also owned a pawn shop, because it was all sorts of things.   
One item in particular had drawn the Merc close and he smiled now as a plan formed in his head.   
“Hey, gramps, how much for the horse?” he asked with a smile, and the old man looked at Wade for a moment, contemplating his intentions.   
“For your ... daughter?” he guessed and the Merc felt such a surge of pride flow through his body as he nodded, that he would've screamed it from the rooftops. That is, if there were any around.   
“Yeah. It's still good to use, right?” Wade asked, because the toy seemed ancient on the outside.   
“Of course, it's solid craftsmanship. Handmade. Just needs a few touch-ups.”  
“Cool, I can do that. So, tell me your price.”

 

“She's doing very well,” aunt May commented when Peter and her strolled through an aisle. A bit further down he saw Wade at a stand, talking to a seller.  
“Yeah, she's been fast asleep since I started walking. I think she likes the rocking,” he said and carefully pulled up Bea's hat, that had drooped to her eyes. She stayed asleep, a tiny hand showing over the top of the carrier that Peter had strapped to his chest.   
“Jjust look at her little face. She's so beautiful,” aunt May said happily and stroked over Bea's head, while Wade came back towards them. 

“You found something?” Peter asked curiously when Wade was just a few steps away. He carried something, but Peter couldn't see what it was in the crowd.  
“Yep, somethin' awesome!”  
Wade grinned, showing off the battered looking old rocking horse that he'd just bought. It was probably carved out of one block, pretty heavy looking, but that way it wouldn't just tip to the side or break somewhere that easily.   
“Oh, Wade, how wonderful!” aunt May said happily and even Peter smiled warmly.   
“I know what someone gets for her first birthday, don't look!” Wade joked and held a hand in front of Bea's eyes, but she still wasn't awake. 

 

The expression in Peter's eyes changed, showed sadness underneath all the love, and Wade just reached out and pinched his chin playfully to make him smile again. Yes, he knew nothing was permanent, but fuck anyone who tried to take Bea away from them. She would stay, and she'd have the best toy horse in all of New York.  
“I'll take it to the car, wanna grab some lunch for us?” Wade offered and kissed Peter on the cheek before the younger man nodded. 

 

With Bea strapped to his chest and aunt May by his side, Peter walked over to the food court, where some trucks had been set up.   
“Wade is so sweet about Bea, it's a wonderful thing to see,” aunt May mentioned as she sat down on one of the plastic chairs around a plastic table.   
“Yeah, it's great,” Peter replied happily and kissed the top of Bea's head. “I bet he's going to paint it himself.” There was a wide smile spreading on Peter's lips when he thought about that, Wade working on something so sweet for their little girl.  
“I think he will. He's actually really talented in those things,” Peter mentioned, because aside from renewing the paint around her house, aunt May hadn't seen Wade be creative, yet. 

They decided to get some Kebab and Peter just carried it over to the table when Wade got back.   
“Aw, my favourite people and food, the day can't get any better,” he said and took one of the paper plates from Peter, to help him carry them.  
“It's already the best day in a long time,” Peter said, voice soft and loving, before he bowed his head and kissed Bea. “I can't wait to see the horse.”  
“It's gonna be epic, Petey,” Wade said as they started their meal. They sat on plastic chairs and ate from paper plates, but the sun was shining nicely – not too warm, not too cold, and Peter was right, this day was perfect just like that. 

 

Late that evening Peter and Wade arrived back at their apartment and the first thing Wade did was turn on their security system. He had added to it since the attack on him and Bea, now every single window had not only a lock, but also a vibration sensor, alarming the main system when someone would try to cut or break the glass.   
Their main door was of course always locked with the keypad on the inside of the door, but now there was another small bolt at the bottom corner. Even the vent in the bathroom was secured with a motion sensor, in case someone would open it somehow. 

They put Bea to bed almost immediately after they arrived, taking the time to giver her her usual routine to calm her down. When she was sleeping tightly, Peter and Wade set to preparing some things for the next day, cleaning and tidying up since they'd left on pretty short notice.   
“It's good to be home,” Peter said and the sound of his voice reminded Wade of the conversation they'd had one night. Where Wade had wondered if they would ever have that feeling of _home_ that also included Bea.   
Wade smiled, reassured and glad to feel the same way. He glanced over to where Bea's rocking horse sat in a corner under an old blanket.  
“Yeah.” Smiling wider, Wade threw the kitchen towel he was just holding onto the counter and strolled over to Peter. The young man looked up from where he was just preparing the usual sanitized tray for Bea. He always kept a set of bottles at the ready before each day, covered with a white cloth. “We should take a break,” Wade said and place his hands gently onto Peter’s hips. 

Peter returned his smile, both arms reaching up to snake around Wade’s neck, fingers stroking the scarred skin there reverently.   
“We should,” he breathed, then his hands slowly moved down Wade’s chest, feeling the hard muscles underneath the fabric of his shirt. The older man laughed when Peter let his fingers snap the waistband of his pants against the skin.   
“You tease. Go, before I tease you back, right here,” he threatened and Peter went, but shot him a cheeky look over his shoulder.   
“As if you’d dare,” he said and stuck his tongue out just the tiniest bit at Wade, who looked at him in surprise a moment. Then he made a big step around the kitchen island to catch this naughty spider, but Peter had anticipated his move and dashed quietly into the bedroom. 

Wade wanted to run right after him, throw him on the bed and show him what being a tease brought him, but he stilled. Remembering once again that they weren’t alone, Wade grabbed the baby monitor from the loading station and activated it, craning his neck to see the transmitter on Bea’s dresser blink to life. Only then Wade left the room, closing the door firmly bit silently behind himself.   
“Well, look at that,” he said in a chiding tone, but couldn’t hide his grin. “What’s that supposed to be? Still wearing your pants and all. No manners, no regards for my need for booty.”  
Peter laughed, a carefree, relaxed sound, as he unbuttoned his jeans. He’d already disregarded his shirt, thrown it on the floor, but he was still way too dressed. 

 

“And you? You’re still wearing everything, what’s with _my_ need for booty?” Peter challenged, knowing full well what this would do to Wade. Ah, and there it was. The Merc blushed under his scars, shaking his head briefly at Peter’s unspoken question of who’d top that night.   
“You can grope all ya want, Spidey. And lemme help you with those pants,” he offered and placed the baby monitor on the night stand, before kneeling in front of Peter. The younger man smirked, glad that Wade at least wanted to indulge in one thing. While Peter knew Wade liked him topping, they rarely did it, because the Merc still felt uneasy being the center of attention – but at least now he was comfortable with voicing his needs. Or hinting at them, because Peter knew what would happen when he’d let Wade “help” him out of the jeans.   
So Peter just leaned back and watched with hooded eyes as Wade unzipped his pants, but paid no attention to the straining erection trapped in Peter’s underwear. The younger man bit his lip, wishing he would, wishing he could just reach in and stroke himself, release some tension. But he didn’t want to distract Wade, or give him the impression that he wasn’t interested in what Wade did.   
The only way to keep still and let Wade explore, was for Peter to claw his hands into the bedsheet to keep them to himself. 

Wade’s hands dipped under the waistband of Peter’s pants for just a moment, pulling them down over his hips and the underwear with it, but not enough to free him fully. Peter gasped and laughed breathlessly when Wade suddenly shoved his hands further into his pants, but along his hips to his ass, kneading the flesh for just a few seconds, then pulling the young man towards the edge of the bed. Wade’s lips met his stomach and he kissed the skin noisily, placing teasing bites here and there while he roughly manhandled Peter’s jeans off his behind while leaving the young man seated.   
“You’re incredible ... all for me ...,” Wade mumbled, voice grating and dark, sending shivers down Peter’s spine. 

“No, wait,” Peter gasped, when Wade dipped his head down, wanting to kiss the young man’s straining erection standing between them. He placed both hands on Wade’s shoulders. “Lay down, I need to feel you,” he ordered then, smiling softly at the heated look in his lover’s eyes.   
“You really are a genius, always such good ideas,” Wade sighed, voice wavering ever so lightly, while he crawled onto the bed and motioned for Peter to come to him. He grinned and took his time pulling his pants and underwear off his legs, just to give Wade something to look at. Peter could almost feel the Merc’s gaze burning his skin.   
He turned around again and climbed the bed, meeting Wade’s eyes. A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.  
“One of these days Imma suck you off. Real good. Until you scream.”  
Peter felt his cheeks turn hot, and not just because he now straddled Wade’s muscular legs, completely naked and still under Wade’s gaze.   
“We can’t be that noisy,” the younger man mentioned, and his smirk faltered a little at the wicked gleam in Wade’s eyes.   
“Well, I said I wanted to make you scream. Not that you should do that.”  
“Now, who’s got the ideas!”  
They laughed and Peter bent down briefly to kiss Wade, who held him close all of a sudden and made them both just laugh more. Sighing happily, Peter sat back up and worked off Wade’s clothes.  
“I missed this.”  
“Hell yeah, me too. We need to plan in sex-appointments or somethin’”  
“That’s not really what I meant,” Peter giggled, his voice breathy while he worked both of them with his hands.   
”I know,” Wade replied sweetly and smiled, then gave Peter’s butt a teasing smack to make him sit up on his knees. “You miss all the sweet stuff ‘n laughing.”  
“Don’t you?” Peter wanted to know, observing how Wade slicked up his fingers and rubbed them together to warm up the lube. He bit his lip when the Merc’s hand disappeared behind him.   
“Sure do. But also ... this.”  
Peter groaned when Wade pushed a finger into his body roughly, wasting no time and moving right away. It didn't hurt, but it was fast enough to get Peter almost doubling over and knock all the air out of his lungs.   
“Yeah, I missed this. A lot. Feeling you,” Wade growled, pushing his finger deeper. He pulled out more and more each time just to quickly shove another finger in with the first one.   
“Fuck!” Peter wheezed, not daring to rise his voice any more.   
“I'm trying to.”, Wade replied, giggling and pushing in with three fingers now, having Peter double over and clutch the Merc's shoulders.   
He lasted just long enough to feel his body accept the feeling, when he shook his head wildly, unable to even process any more stimulation without being properly filled. 

“Okay, enough, enough,” Peter mumbled, feeling dizzy with want. Wade sent one more teasing push against the hero's prostate, watching him squirm.  
“Get up,” Wade huffed after he'd pulled his fingers out. He used the rest of the lube on his fingers to give his own cock a few hard tugs, so hard that he had to clench his teeth. Wade saw his own hands tremble as he tried to hold Peter's hips, unable to even take his eyes off the beautiful naked form of his lover moving above him.  
Wade shuddered as he felt and watched the tip of his cock disappear into Peter’s body. It was so intense, letting Peter control everything, but Wade loved every second of it.   
“Not too loud ...,” Wade reminded both of them, even though he loved to hear Peter scream his name. With eyes still squeezed tightly shut, Peter nodded, his chest heaving. 

Worrying his bottom lip with his teeth, Peter began slowly moving his hips. It had been too long since they’d had the opportunity to just indulge in each other like that, and he felt the stretch a lot more than usual. It hurt just a bit, just until Wade was inside him to the hilt. Taking a moment to just breathe, Peter looked down at Wade.   
Their gazes met and the Merc smiled, ever the playful one even during sex.   
“All good?” he asked softly, both hands massaging the shaking muscles in Peter's thighs.   
“More than that,” Peter replied and they shared another laugh and kiss.  
Remembering Wade's words, all Peter uttered were sighs, deep and drawn out, with every breath once he'd started moving. Whenever a moan or cry welled up in his throat, Peter would clamp his mouth shut, or clench his teeth.   
Wade smirked, watching his lover ride him, enjoying the view. This way, Peter was in control most of the time and wouldn't be startled into a shout. Also, it let Wade stare and touch all he wanted, wherever he wanted.   
He started out pretty tame, just caressing Peter's arms and hands, holding them for a moment and kissing the knuckles, only to see the younger man smile through a sigh. After he'd placed Peter's hands on his chest so that he could feel the warmth of his palms, Wade held Peter's hips for just a moment, watched him squirm and bite his lower lip. He was so perfect.   
Peter still moved on top of him, still drove him crazy with that tight heat of his, when Wade reached up and let both of his thumbs flick over those perfect rosy nipples. Peter's movements faltered right away and he let his head drop back with a moan. Wade felt him tighten impossibly more and groaned, starting to pinch the little perks between his fingers, tease them until the color deepened and they were nice and hard under the pads of his fingers.   
Wade even earned himself a sudden gasp from Peter when he leaned up and closed his lips around one of the young hero's nipples, sucking hard and flicking his tongue over it. Soft hands closed around Wade's head, holding him close and touching the sensitive part at the back of his neck that the Merc would never allow anybody else to even come near. 

“I …,” Peter began, but had to press his lips together for a moment to stifle a moan. “I gotta come ...”  
Wade nodded, realizing that maybe they shouldn't take all this time. That they didn't have, by the way, since they could be interrupted any second by the baby monitor.   
Clenching his teeth and swearing that nothing would stop him from coming inside this perfect ass, Wade fell back into the pillow, eager to get things really going. 

“Wanna turn around?” Wade asked, licking his lips when he watched a stream of pre-come dribble onto his abdomen. God, he loved seeing Peter’s body unravel like this.   
”No,” the young man just wheezed out and fell forward the next moment, Wade barely able to close his arms around his chest and hold him. He could feel every single muscle in Peter’s body shake with he sudden change of position, and Wade used the moment to kiss Peter’s nose, his cheeks, his lips.   
Eventually this made them both laugh, which in turn did very interesting things to their bodies. Their laughs turned to gasps and moans soon enough. Wade began moving again, glad that he'd enough concentration left for just that – it was hard with Peter so close and distractingly gorgeous.  
Peter’s back bowed up, like a cat’s, and he gasped.   
“Ready?” Wade managed to croak out because he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold off on his own climax. Thankfully, Peter nodded frantically and changed his grip from the sheets down to the mattress, clenching both hands into it. Wade grabbed his hips, held them firmly and then thrust up hard, again and again until the sound of skin slapping against skin was louder than their heavy breathing.   
Eventually Peter bit the pillow right next to Wade's head to muffle his moans. After one more hard thrust against his sweet spot, Peter's head shot up, he gasped and made this little hiccup noise of his that Wade knew indicated he was going to come.   
He drew a deep breath, startled almost, and threw himself on Wade, burying his head and his screams into the pillow as he spilled hotly between them.  
Wade groaned, rolling his hips up and shivering when Peter's body clenched around him, pulling him over the edge instantly. 

 

The moment they were cleaned up, had snuggled close to each other under the blanket and just turned off the lights, the baby monitor let them hear Bea whimpering.  
“Nooo...” Wade whined, his tone almost matching the baby's.  
They waited if she'd cry for real, and when she did, they had a quick match of rock, paper, scissors to find out who had to get up again.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D   
> In today's chap, we'll jump through time a bit, see how Peter and Wade are managing daily life with a baby ;) And then there's a special surprise for both of them waiting at the end, hope you like it!   
> Enjoy <3

The following week, Peter couldn't delay it any longer – he had to go to uni.   
Wade assured him that he'd totally handle taking care of Bea, yeah, sure, he was absolutely fine.  
Except that he wasn't.   
Wade thought he could do it, but that was when he still had Peter around to have an eye on all his craziness. Wade knew Peter trusted him, but Wade didn't trust _himself_.   
It stressed him so much that his paranoia towards himself reached new levels.   
The whole first week Wade would just stay at home, always ready to call Peter or aunt May just in case he couldn't handle himself around Bea anymore. - He told nobody that he'd programmed both their numbers on speed dial and always kept a note saying just that next to the phone whenever Peter left, just in case his stupid brain forgot even that simple information. 

But Wade wasn’t satisfied with just that; he wanted to be as safe as possible.   
He banned all alcohol from the kitchen, even though it would take him drinking all of it at once to get intoxicated. But what did he knew, maybe the voices would one day tell him to do just that!   
_Hey, we're not that crazy!_  
 **Yeah! - Also, what's the fun in just drinking it? We'd need a drinking game.**  
 _That's more like it. How about, for every dirty diaper-_  
“Shut up, shut up, shup up!” Wade hissed and cleared out every last bottle and can, left only a few good wines that they had with fancy dinners, and a bottle of sake Peter used for cooking sometimes. But that was only step one on Wade's “no crazy around the baby” list (that was a real thing and had that exact headline in Wade’s notebook).  
The TV was never running when Wade and Bea were alone together, he only ever played some nursery songs for her on a tablet, and then with disabled wireless, so _absolutely nothing_ could distract him. No radio, no mobile phone, just the landline for emergencies. 

At the end of each day, Wade had the worst headaches he's ever had in his life, just because of straining himself so much behaving like a fucking normal human being. It was so hard.  
Peter didn’t know about any of that, although Wade thought the young man might assume something. But Wade never planned to tell him; he wanted to be there for his family now.   
He even told Peter to wear earbuds the night before important tests, so that he wasn't bothered by Bea crying and Wade walking around. The weekend nights, when Peter was working late on his computer anyways, he'd get up and take care of Bea, and Wade could sleep, but it never seemed enough to make him feel less tired.

It took Wade about two full weeks to get the hang of things with Bea. It seemed like everything was so much harder when he was alone with her, which was actually bullshit, rationally he knew that. But in his mind, he was so scared to make a mistake with her, that he did everything extra slow and probably annoyed the hell out of the little girl.   
At least they didn’t have to worry about money for a while and Wade had told the Avengers that they'd have to go on any upcoming missions alone for maybe a month or two, since he couldn't just leave Peter and Bea. Not until Peter was in his work routine again. Wade wouldn't just let him down like that, they'd work together so that Peter could get a good degree and they'd raise Bea. Also, by that time Peter would have finished his meds and he'd hopefully be good again.

Peter did super well at uni, top of his class as usual, and Wade was so proud of him. And he wanted to make Peter proud as well.   
Wade made an effort to stick to the daily routine, fed Bea well, entertained her with books and toys, even took the time and tremendous concentration to fill her baby book with some pictures and information every now and again.   
Still, he just _couldn't_ go out with her.  
At home, Wade was at least feeling secure enough to play with her, make fun and hear her giggles, but he was sure outside were more distractions from him. It felt so bad and selfish but whenever they needed something they didn't get on their shopping trips together, Wade would shoot Peter a text to pick it up after uni. The younger man didn't seem to mind, but every time Wade felt like he was letting his family down.

Wade brooded more and more when he was alone – only whenever Bea slept - because he felt like he didn't treat Bea and Peter right. He knew Peter started to worry about him, but was glad the young hero didn't say anything about it.   
No, it was Dr. Dearing who suddenly got nosey about how Wade did with Bea alone, if there was anything he was apprehensive about or avoided. Wade refused to talk to her, never had answered one of her questions with anything more than yes or no (mostly no).  
That didn't mean her questions didn't make him think, and brood, and curse himself for all his stupidity. And wish he could do better.   
Every time Wade looked at Bea, this wish got stronger, and eventually he decided that Bea deserved at least a try.

 

Taking baby steps, Wade assembled a shopping list with all kinds of things they could need. He decided to stock up, since he couldn't possibly know if he was good at shopping on his own, and if it all went down, he wouldn't have to go again soon.  
The first day he wanted to go, the voices annoyed Wade more than usual – it was one of the bad days for him. Most of his alone time was spent on the couch, with the TV on low volume to tune out the voices whenever Bea slept.   
Something on the screen caught his attention, Wade sat up and stared for a moment, then snatched his shopping list again from the table.

 

One and a half months after Peter started uni again, Wade had planned his very first trip outside with Bea. His nerves were going crazy. Bea had just turned three months the day before and her favourite hobby now was rolling around. Her blond hair stuck up in all directions from moving so much on the mattress, making Wade grin when he woke her up in the morning.  
“Good morning, little princess,” Wade greeted softly when entering Bea’s room, and she waved her arms and legs around impatiently.   
“You’re just too cute not to kiss,” he said as he lifted her up and gave her kisses until she giggled.   
She was always so clingy after waking up so Wade held her, while he chose her outfit of the day.   
Which he of course photographed with his phone and sent to Peter, like every day. By now, Peter called him Bea's personal stylist. Wade had to admit he loved all the pink and frilly clothing and he thought Bea was always the best dressed baby around.

When he had dressed Bea in a pink shirt and purple tights, and even took the time to brush out her soft hair. After a breakfast bottle for Bea and some cleaning up, Wade took on his mission and strapped Bea into her carseat. He hoped a full belly would keep her calm during the trip, but he still shot her a pleading look when they stood at the door.  
“Hey ... little Bea. Please be good, okay? I don’t want people to think I’m a bad parent for you,” he pleaded, kissing her quickly on the head before leaving the apartment. It didn’t take long for them to reach the supermarket and Bea was okay in the backseat by herself. 

Once they were inside, Wade had pretty much an epiphany. Or something smart like that.  
Bea was actually a little angel. Soon Wade didn’t understand why he worried so much about it in the first place. Sure, he had his anxious moments when he couldn't attach the car seat to the shopping cart right away, but with a bit of trial and error, he figured it out.   
Of course, almost everyone outside stared at him, because he looked so weird, but whenever Bea smiled at him, Wade found that he cared less and less. Through the first few steps into the store, he held her little fingers, just to feel safe and calm, like he always did with her. But after a few minutes, everything seemed to be so easy.   
Bea held onto her bottle of tea – she did begin to like it, a little – and was a happy little camper, leaving Wade with enough time to follow his list.

A bit later, he paid and was actually nice to the lady at the checkout, even though she stared at him for a few seconds more than necessary. It all went well and Wade felt a little like he’d conquered a new kingdom.  
Suddenly, with Bea still calm, Wade felt more daring and texted Peter that they'd pick up their monthly diaper order at the post office. 

 

Peter sighed happily when he stepped out of campus. Just before his last lecture, Wade had texted him saying that he’d been running errands with Bea.   
The young hero was so proud of him and in the mood for celebrating, so he went and picked up some pastries from a bakery a few blocks from uni. 

The past weeks had been hard on all of them, and even though Peter always put on a smile and focused on his studies, he missed Bea so much. Being with her at the weekends was okay, but during the week, he just got to see her a few hours each day. In the morning, all he could get was a quick glance into her room and maybe a kiss on the cheek if she was fast enough asleep.  
Thankfully Wade supplied him with lots of pictures throughout the day, of whatever those two were up on. Peter grinned, remembering her “outfit of the day” photo from this morning, and almost walked past the pharmacy.   
The red sign caught Peter’s attention just the right moment and he jumped back in. He almost forgot that he had to pick up Wade’s medicine.

Back when they only relied on themselves, Peter had stolen the prescription notes from doctor’s offices around campus and faked a scribbly doctor’s signature. Now he was actually holding a real prescription in his hands, thanks to StarkMedical. Wade got surprisingly well along with Dr. Banner, and the doctor worked on some experimental cremes for the Merc. The last sample they got from Banner had made a large bump on Wade’s skin almost disappear completely, but he had complained that it felt burning and throbbing like a bee sting, so there was more testing needed. Until the next version was done, the doctor had prescribed Wade something else. 

When he had the two big tubs wrapped up in a paper bag, Peter quickly made his way home, eager to see Bea and kiss her chubby cheeks. 

“I’m home!” he called cheerfully, but quiet enough not to wake Bea (it was her naptime already) and set his backpack down next to the kitchen counter, the medicine went onto the table.   
“Hi, sweetie,” Wade greeted, smiling bright and relaxed. He got up from the sofa were he’d worked on some notes apparently.   
“Hi. How did the shopping go?”  
“Awesome, Petey. Imma tell you – NO Imma show you! But first, I want a kiss,” he demanded, still in the best mood possible, and Peter was glad he seemed more confident.   
Peter let himself be pulled by gentle, scarred hands onto the Merc’s broad chest. He leaned on the other man’s shoulders and tipped his chin up for a few loving kisses.  
“Mmm, maybe I’ll show you something else,” Wade mused, his lips brushing Peter’s. The younger man laughed, but pushed himself up after another kiss.   
“No, I wanna know.”  
“Aaalright, after all, I can show you the dimension of my genius. – Oh, and Bea was great, Petey. I think she’ll wake up in about 30 minutes, so you have to see our haul.”

Then Peter noticed the loads of newspapers and advertisements sitting in stacks on coffee table. When he spotted another pile on the far end of the kitchen counter, Peter couldn’t resist the question.  
“What’s with all these, anyways? We don’t even get that much mail in a week ...” he mumbled thoughtfully and looked at Wade, who grinned brightly.   
“Petey, those were the best idea I’ve ever had. There’s money in there!”  
“What?” Wade smiled brightly at him and gestured excitedly.   
“Yeah, so there was this lady on TV, like, that huge chick with like a bunch of kids. And I was thinking man they gotta pay for lotsa food, but she was all like nah I ain’t paying nothin’. Then she showed how and Petey she’s smart!”   
Now Wade stepped into the kitchen and looked more proud every second.

There had been one empty cupboard next to the oven (Peter honestly had no idea why they would need so much storage space in their kitchen), but now it was filled all the way up. There were gallons of milk, on top of them at least ten packages of flour, all kinds of noodles, a whole box with pesto in glasses, and a whole lot of other stuff.   
“And over here!” Wade exclaimed proudly, opening another door and showing off twenty bottles of pancake mix and several soda cans. And from all the bullion packages the paper was torn away, maybe because it displayed cows.Their fridge and freezer were also completely full, to the point were things in the freezer were stacked without packaging, to save more space.   
“Holy shit ...,” Peter mumbled, which made Wade laugh happily.   
“Yeah, right? And now guess what I paid for all that!”  
Peter looked up at his lover, wondering if he had taken money from one of his hidden accounts and was just fooling him.   
“Uhm ... I dunno ... a hundred? Two?” he guessed, but Wade shook his head, smiling brightly.   
“Not even close. One Dollar and 75 cents.”  
“I ... what?”  
“Yeah, with the coupons from those ads! They explained everything on the show – ain't nobody tellin' me TV makes you dumb. No, Petey, they showed how to do all the fancy ass math and then go home with all that stuff and barely any money spent. And it’s so easy, even I can do it.”  
“That's … that's amazing, actually.”  
“I know,” Wade said proudly and grinned, but his smile turned softer quickly “And ... having a detailed list helped me concentrate.”  
Peter smiled, feeling a bit overwhelmed by how well Wade was doing, how happy he was. This was what he'd always wanted for the Merc.   
“Don't you get all sappy on me just now … save that for bedtime,” Wade said gently and kissed Peter, who took the older man's hands in his.   
“I'm just happy. And proud of you,” he said and thought he saw Wade blush underneath his scars. He looked bashful for a moment, then grinned down at Peter.   
“You can be proud when I got the next round planned and the kitchen's full,” he promised and Peter laughed.   
“I’ll remember it then, and we celebrate with a family dinner when you’re done. – Now, let me get changed into something more comfortable,” Peter said when Wade offered to unpack the pastries and set the table.   
By now, they'd both accepted that around Bea, nice clothing wasn't the way to go. With all the spit up milk and fluids leaking out of this little person, they'd both just wear sweatpants and old shirts. 

In the bedroom, Peter noticed a foil of some sort stick out from under one corner, and bent down to pick it up, suspecting a tissue paper wrapper or something the likes. What he pulled from under the bed was, in fact, a huge package of kitchen towels.   
Surprised, Peter crouched down in front of the bed, peeking underneath.

When he heard steps approach behind him, Peter didn't even turn around to talk.  
“Wade?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Are there stacks of paper towels under our bed?”  
“That’s your half, my half is toilet paper,” the Merc pointed out matter of factly, and put freshly washed towels into the closet.  
“Why are there so many?” Peter replied astonished, wondering how long it would take for those quantities to run out. Probably several months. Half a year?  
“They were free!”  
Peter could hardly argue with that reasoning.

********************************************************************************

Their search for HYDRA’s facilities turned up two more leads over the next weeks, but sadly the results were barely noticeable. Just ticked-off spaces on a map, really.   
Wade went with the team again – only over the weekends, when he could leave Peter and Bea with aunt May – but once they found another abandoned building, then nothing but an old bomb shelter. It was big enough, but there hadn’t been any sign of a lab. So the search continued, fueled only by the wish of everyone to stop the suffering of innocent women and children.  
It had long been stopped to be just about their samples. With all of the team having seen Bea, it had gotten personal. 

In between all the bad news, the two men watched their little girl grow stronger and more alert every day. Just as he had planned, Peter had started a baby book for her, taking lots of photos to put in and writing down all her milestones and changes.   
Eventually he managed to balance uni and private life, and had more time for Bea, and Peter even managed to get a snapshot of Bea's first smile – all toothless and cute – with his phone. From that day on, it was the background for both Wade's and Peter's phones and even aunt May had a tiny frame with it on a shelf in the living room. 

Colder weather quickly approached, without another sign of their attackers. This didn't mean they forgot about it, though, but Peter and Wade were eager to live a normal life as a family for as long as they could. They had family dinners with aunt May and signed Bea up for baby swim class, although it was always Peter in the water with her – Wade refused because of his skin, the chlorine in the water irritated it, but also because of the stares of the other people. 

“How are things going?” Peter asked one day, when he stepped out of the pool, little Bea in his arms. She looked at Wade as he grinned up at her, and the Merc got up from the bench he'd been sitting on and wrapped his two cuties in a big towel. Bea could sit in her jumper already, but not very well on her own, but she was very attentive, looking around all the time.   
Being in the water seemed to be something that she loved, she was always so energetic.

Of course Peter had noticed that Wade had stared at his phone quite a lot, and knew what it was about.   
“Very good. We can sign the contracts this week,” Wade proudly announced, laughing when Peter gasped, eyes wide.   
“Just like that?” he asked and Bea looked at him, then at Wade again.   
“Just like that. Guess we're finally lucky.”

Lucky to get the two floors underneath theirs in their house. They could finally begin to advertise the places, interview possible tenants and then make some good, respectable money with the rents.   
To Wade, it felt like heaven had come even closer to him, already having been so close with Bea and Peter by his side. 

Peter laughed and stepped forward into Wade's hug, the Merc reminding him with a grin how wet they still were.   
“Gimme that little froggy,” he said and took Bea, who today wore a bright green swimming diaper. She made some garbled sounds at Wade, wiggling around in his lap when he wrapped her in her own towel.   
“You looked so cute swimmin' around. Did you have fun? It looked like it when you went splash splash splash,” Wade said to Bea, rubbing her chubby limbs while Peter put on a bathrobe. The other parents around them got ready to head to the changing rooms as well, and luckily they'd accepted their little family quite well. There were a lot less stares now and Peter had even made friends with a young mom, she was just one year older than him.   
They weren't super close, yet, but Wade and Peter both hoped that they could stay in touch after swim class was over, for playdates and the likes. Mutant child or not, Bea needed some company of children her age.

Back home, Bea had a snack and then took the nap of her life, as always after swim class. It was so super cute to see her sprawled out in her crib, so exhausted from having fun.   
Peter was just marking the new appointments with SHIELD medical into their calendar when a mail came into Wade's account.   
“Is it from Matt?” the older man asked, because he only expected him to write.   
It turned out that Matt was more than eager to help them with anything relating the new apartments, so Wade had been in almost daily contact with the lawyer.   
The Merc was just busy cleaning the kitchen, and then he'd go right back to working on Bea's rocking horse in the basement.  
“Yup, he sent you something in an attachment,” Peter explained and Wade asked him to print it out.   
“Is it the contracts already?”  
“Yeah, we can proofread them and add or take out things however we like. Did he write when he'd come over this week?”   
While Wade stacked the dishwasher, Peter checked his mails for him and then wrote one more thing into their calendar.  
“On Friday, early morning if it's good with us.”  
“Of course it is, he knows we don't sleep anymore,” Wade joked and Peter laughed quietly. That wasn't all that true, at least not in the way it was for some … parents. It was still weird to address himself as that. Still, Bea slept pretty good, but she just wouldn't last a full night, she woke up at least twice.   
And since Peter was going to uni, becoming smarter and everything, it was usually Wade getting up to tend to her. Sometimes, when Peter had an important day ahead, Wade would encourage him to wear earplugs at night, just so he could get on full eight hours before his brain had to work hard.   
“Could you take a look at the contracts with me? I mean, if you got time,” Wade mentioned, not wanting to keep Peter from his work.   
“For you and Bea, I'll always have time. Come over,” the younger man replied with a smile, sitting down on the sofa after grabbing the stack of documents from the printer. Luckily, Bea was so out of it she wouldn't wake up from them talking or from the printer.   
Together they went through the contact and found that they had nothing to complain about with Matt's work. So their new future was one step closer. 

********************************************************************************

In the first week of October, Peter was working on his papers for uni, several documents opened at once on his computer, stacks of books on his desk and a notepad scribbled with half sentences and question marks to the side. 

When a key turned in the door, Peter smiled and decided that it was time for a little break, greeting Wade, who'd just stepped into the main area.   
„Everything okay?“ the Merc asked right away, a relaxed smile on his face as he took of his shoes and jacket.   
„Yeah, just taking a break. What've you got there?“ Peter asked, gesturing to the big shopping bag Wade had brought.   
„I got a little somethin' planned,“ Wade said and began unloading then contents of his bag. Peter watched with a smirk and observed how the older man put bright green and silver cardboard on the table, as well as a big, see through mixing bowl.   
„And what is this going to be?“ Peter asked curiously, still intrigued to see this new side of Wade. Ever since they got Bea, he'd gotten increasingly creative, not only painting her rocking horse, but also making little toys and things for her.  
„We're making a Halloween Card. Bea's still to young to go trick-or-treating, but we can have her in a cute picture. Everybody can have a Christmas Card, but we're gonna have the real cool stuff.“  
Peter smirked and now closed his laptop. Uni stuff could wait for whatever Wade had planned.  
„Doesn't look like the typical pumpkin-costume.“  
„Pssh, you'd think she'd get something generic? Hell nah. We're gonna have the best Halloween card ever seen,“ Wade said confidently and patted a bottle of glue on the table. „Just you wait and see. Oh, and maybe you wanna look for a space-y background for your photoshop.“  
„Will do,“ Peter said, always happy to help. He looked through his archives, but peeked over his monitor every now and again to see what Wade was up to. 

And laughed when he realized that the older man transformed the girl's jumper into a UFO. 

Peter laughed even more when he saw the finished picture on his computer a day later.   
The card looked hilarious, with Bea in her flying saucer jumper, with a green long sleeved shirt on and the mixing bowl on her head where two wiggly antennae stuck out. She floated in the top right corner in front of a starry night sky.   
Wade wore a black skirt and jacket and a short red wig, and Peter was in a suit, a flashlight in his hand, staring up at the UFO in awe.   
Wade had asked him to put „I want to believe“ underneath the picture, and the X-files logo smaller in the corner, making it look like an official movie poster. 

„I can't wait for your idea on Christmas cards,“ Peter laughed when he printed the results.  
„Oh, honey, it's gonna be even more epic than that,“ Wade promised while putting away the crafting supplies into a drawer that got fuller every day. He'd even already gotten huge crayons, even though Bea couldn't even sit to draw. 

********************************************************************************

The luck continued to be on their side, and sooner than they thought they officially owned all three upper floors. Wade had worked hard on the apartments, installing top notch security systems, new AC units and even renewed the floors in one place. All because he wanted to make a good job, to not have people complain.   
And – Peter knew, although Wade never said so – he wanted to be a good role model for Bea, to show her that he had a respectable job. When he wasn't busy in the new apartments, Wade used whatever spare time he had to work on Bea's rocking horse. By now he had it all cleaned up, and was about to prepare the old wood for new colors with a special foundation. He'd even bought some good quality leather to make a new saddle and harness with.

The new apartment they'd picked for themselves was ready just when their next appointment with Dr. Dearing rolled around. It was winter already, and Peter had wrapped Bea up in a heavy knitted jacket from aunt May, as well as a hat and tiny pink mittens. She was in her carrier close to his chest, so that she could have his body warmth as well.  
“She looks like a burrito,” Wade commented happily and snapped a photo with his phone. His memory card was full every few days because he just couldn't let one second of the little one's life undocumented. But Peter wasn't any better, he just took lots of pictures with his big camera at home, because he was out a lot less with Bea. 

Once inside, Peter removed her hat and gloves, while they rode down to the doctor's offices. Wade took the clothes from him and put them into Bea's bag, which he had slung over one shoulder.  
“Hopefully we can leave fast,” he said, voice dark and as always there was a pained expression around his eyes. Wade still felt uneasy around doctors, but Peter knew this was something that would probably never change.  
“I think so. They probably wanna get packed up, most doctor's offices are already closed for the holidays,” Peter mentioned, since he'd seen a lot of notices around town. 

They were shown to the usual waiting area, where Peter and Wade worked on getting Bea out of her heavy clothes and the carrier. She was almost five months old and so beautiful, like a china doll. From what little hair grew on her head, that she'd even get curls.  
“Can I get the cutie? Gimme that cutie, aww, kisses kisses,” Wade cooed, always betraying his threatening looks when the little one was around. He kissed her cheeks and cuddled her for a while, then grabbed a book from the box of toys and showed it to Bea. Peter watched the for a moment, then he slowly took out his phone and snapped a photo to send to aunt May.   
She had requested Peter to teach her how to use a more modern cell phone with photo functions, just so that she could get pictures of Bea. Peter thought that was adorable, and laughed when May sent him a bunch of heart emojis after he'd sent her the photo with the caption “waiting for the doctor with papa”.

“Parker?” a nurse called and Peter got up, taking the diaper bag and their things while Wade carried Bea. They went to Dr. Dearing's usual office and she greeted them happily.   
“And how are you doing, little Miss?” she asked, always nice to Bea. Wade let the doctor take her from his arms, and Peter quietly brushed his hand over Wade's as he balled it into a fist. It was still hard for him to let the doctor handle Bea, and he had passed out one more time when Bea had cried when getting her shots.  
Still, he went with Peter and Bea every time, never declined no matter how much his hands were shaking. Peter was very proud of him. 

“She's very well. Not even a runny nose. And she's drinking well, too,” Peter said while he gestured for Wade to sit down, and then went over to the doctor to help undress Bea. Wade liked to stay close, but not too close, so he often hovered around behind Dr. Dearing, so that he could see her hands and – as Peter suspected – jump her should she ever try something with Bea.   
“And I can see she put on some weight, that's good. She's ready for another growth spurt,” the doctor commented, checking Bea's vitals and reflexes. Bea didn't like this at all and whined loudly, grumpily, until it was all done.   
“Everything okay?” Peter asked quietly, just like he did every time, because his paranoid brain always feared something might not be. Dr. Dearing smiled gently.   
“Yes, everything is fine. She is progressing very well, at the top of all charts for human development, but not too fast either. She's the perfect patient,” she laughed and Peter smiled as he re-dressed Bea. She calmed down a bit and reached up her hands for him to lift her up, cuddling close one Peter did. He kissed her and then went over to the desk, because there was no check up for Bea that wasn't also about them. 

“So, Mr. Parker …,” she began and Peter nodded his attention, patting Bea's back as she huddled up to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wade reaching for Bea's hand, taking the little fingers in his. This was more about calming himself than Bea, Peter knew, and almost offered to have Wade hold her, because he wanted his lover to feel safe.  
“Are you experiencing any unusual symptoms? Any bad dreams? Flashbacks? Anxiety?”  
Peter gulped, because he always hated that part. Hated to admit that he was still not feeling that well, was still weak.   
“Uh, no nightmares anymore. And no flashbacks or anything of that sort. But … but I'm still nervous … I don't know about what … just … just in general,” he admitted, because lying wouldn't get him anywhere. That didn't mean he had to include every detail, though, because sometimes, when he looked at Bea, he wasn't just nervous. Peter was downright terrified.   
That he wasn't good enough for her, or whether or not she would be better off with someone else who wasn't as incapable as him.   
“That'll settle over time, I promise,” the doctor now said. “You should do well without the medication, I'll just prescribe you an emergency dose. – Just take some time with your family during the holidays to make nice memories together.”  
Now she smiled to herself, as if that'd been an inside joke, and picked something out of her folder.   
“Yeah, that's … that will help I guess,” Peter lied, because they all knew Bea wasn't really theirs.   
“And Mr. Wilson?”   
“What?” Wade sighed, sounding tired, but trying hard not to get angry. Still, the doctor smiled, always patient with him.   
“How do you feel?”  
“Wonderful. Just peachy. Thanks,” Wade said, and Peter tapped his foot against Wade's under the table, reminding him to be nice. “Uh, yeah, no, I mean it. I'm good. Things are going well.”  
“That's good to hear,” she said, tapping the single piece of paper, that was now in her hands, on the desk. She never pressed Wade to talk, just asked him a few questions every time and probably hoped to eventually get a real answer out of him. But even Peter couldn't say if that would ever happen.   
“Then I guess it's time for my early Christmas present for you, isn't it?”  
Wade's eyes narrowed, because he always suspected bad things. And although he knew better, Peter's heart began racing nervously, too. They watched as Dr. Dearing smiled widely at them, then placed the document in front of them on the desk. 

“What is this?” Peter said and leaned forward just a little, so that he could read the first lines.   
“ … Adoption …?” Wade asked then, his voice barely audible. When he looked over, Peter saw that his eyes were wide, disbelieving.   
“Yes. We could convince SHIELD to let you adopt Beatrice. With a little help from a certain Mr. Stark,” she added with a smirk, and Peter smiled, exhaled a high pitched breath.   
“Really?”  
“Really,” Dr. Dearing assured, her smile growing into a grin. “You will officially be Bea's parents once you signed. She will be your daughter.”

For a moment, both men stared at the document, then Wade snatched a pen from the desk. He read every line carefully, making sure nothing suspicious was added, but Peter knew it was just a regular adoption certificate. Because he'd researched them, wishing for them to some day have this.   
And now, here it was.   
Peter could just stare as he saw Wade signing it hastily, as if he expected someone to take it away again and tell him it was all just a joke.   
“Here, sign,” Wade said, all but pushing the pen into Peter's hand and shoving the document over to him. For a moment, Peter couldn't see because there were tears welling up in his eyes. Then, he reached out with a shaky hand and set his signature next to Wade's.   
“I'll get you a copy to take home with you. Then everything will be set,” the doctor announced and a bit later, when they were in the car again – both not sure how they even got their through the baffled haze in their minds – they stared at the papers again.   
“Wade?”   
“Yeah.”  
“She's our daughter now,” Peter mumbled, feeling so much at once that he was sure he'd just explode any moment now.   
“She is,” Wade agreed, breathing out the words quietly as if afraid they'd burst the bubble around them if they were too loud. 

The next moment they leaned into each other's arms, hugging for long minutes, Bea between them, sleeping soundly against Peter's chest, and finally laughing and kissing, absolutely not caring that they were in a parking lot in the middle of town.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again :D I might change the upload day soon so we don't miss weeks anymore, I'll get my full work schedule figured out the next few days ... so maybe I could sweeten up your Mondays ;) I'll let you know in the description <3  
> This chap, we're gonna skip some more time, but also get to know just how close danger can get to you when you least expect it.
> 
> Enjoy <3

That same evening Peter and Wade began packing their things, laughing and joking the whole time, ecstatic with the good news. Peter had called aunt May and told her about the adoption the moment they got home. 

In the early morning hours of the next day, Wade was already downstairs, preparing their new home, where he'd already changed the flooring in two rooms – wood was a lot better than carpet with small kids that dropped milk bottles or spit somewhere.   
Their new place wasn’t even smaller, but in fact bigger than the other. All the rooms except kitchen and living room were separated from each other. There was a big hallway that opened right up into the living room and kitchen area, only one door to the right that lead into a storage closet.   
The huge main room went around a corner into what was probably a dining area. But since their dining table would fit perfectly into the main room, Peter and Wade decided to set up an office they could share in the corner. The far end of the living room opened up into another long hallway, where four rooms spanned out, the main bedroom to the right, a big bathroom right in front, and two equally big rooms down the hall. 

While Bea slept, Peter carried some furniture pieces downstairs by himself, walking back and forth while Wade baby proofed their new place. They'd bought everything a while ago, but hesitated putting it on. Maybe they were both apprehensive to hope for too much, but now that the adoption was under way and signed for, nothing could stop them.   
“You need any help?” Wade asked, lying on the floor and screwing some plastic lids in front of the power outlets.   
“No, all good,” Peter mumbled, heading back down already, grateful for his mutant stamina, especially when he made his way back down with a dresser on his arms – still full with just the front taped shut so nothing would fall out. He had even sent the few boxes they had packed down in the elevator, and webbed them straight into the apartment behind him.   
“Cheater, I saw that!”   
“I saw you cutting the TV cable with a dagger!” Peter called back and heard Wade laugh and declare this match even. 

During lunchtime they both took a break to spend time with Bea, who wanted more attention now than ever. She tried to sit up all the time now, but sometimes she just slumped back down or sunk to the side like a little bag of rice, so Peter had put some pillows all around her. 

Once she was down for her afternoon nap, Peter and Wade went downstairs again, taking some paint buckets out of the janitor's storage closet on their floor. Wade had gotten a great deal on a number of different colours, and stored them in there.   
Now the two men took on Bea's new room, which was the last one on the hallway, leaving it to be the most quiet in the apartment. Wade painted one of the walls in her room pale pink, where would later be her changing table and a dresser. Peter had a more delicate job to do, and used his powers again to full extant, when he glued a fairy tale style forest wallpaper onto the side where Bea's crib would be. He'd even bought her some glow in the dark stars and put them on the ceiling all around.   
“This is creepy and cute at the same time,” Wade commented, shirt splattered with pale pink dots. Peter smiled at him from his upside down position on the ceiling, fishing another star from his pants pocket.   
“It's also extremely efficient.”  
“True dat. You can go back up if you're done, I'll just finish the wall and then air out the room for a bit.”  
“Sure. Depending on how long Bea sleeps, I could bring down towels and sheets, and maybe your weapons stash,” Peter said and fumbled in his pocket again for a handful of stars. He was almost done and he was happy that they got so far already. Well, leave it to the mutant parents – parents! He still internally cheered about that one – to fix a nursery in a day.  
And Peter found that this was really something that calmed him. Finally, Bea would have her own space in their lives, officially, and Peter felt like he could giver her what she deserved. 

Since the nursery needed some more airing out, they decided to spend one last night in their old place, but neither of them slept very much during the night. Wade and Peter had one more weekend day to work on everything together, so they pulled an all-nighter – already used to the lack of sleep from taking care of Bea – and worked on unpacking boxes and re-packing them upstairs. The two men were giddy with happiness and as soon as Bea was up for the morning, they began packing the last of her things and finally moving into their new family home.

Downstairs they even had one room left – Wade had just shrugged his shoulders when Peter brought it up.   
“Maybe we can use it as storage, too, so we don’t have to walk down to the basement for everything. And the washer and dryer could go into the smaller room,” Peter mentioned and got out a key to lock the until now useless room. Wade nodded, looking around and absently rubbing a hand over his neck.   
“Or ... y’know .... foranotherchildorsomethin’” he quickly rambled, words mingled together so much that Peter didn't understand him.   
”What?”  
“Nothin’!”

Not sure if he even wanted to ask, Peter went on to unpack the rest of their things. Honestly, their savings were almost gone by now, since they’d bought the upper levels all at once, but the rents and deposit payments from the new tenants were seeping in slowly as well, so they were going to be fine in a few week's time. By then they would be able to set up a savings account for Bea, and some other security deposits for themselves and the house, in case anything happened. 

Peter couldn’t wait for the time he was done studying and would be able to get a job or enlist full-time for the Avengers and just publish some science papers on the side. 

That evening they spent in their new apartment. Officially, with everything set up, as a family.   
Their old apartment was still dirty, they'd quite literally just taken all the furniture out and downstairs, but there was enough time later to clean it up. For now, Peter and Wade wanted to celebrate.  
Which meant them on the floor, playing with Bea, while waiting for their ordered pizza to arrive and sharing a glass of wine – Wade refused to have one for himself.  
They had opted for two big rugs throughout the living area, so they'd all be cozy.  
“Petey,” Wade said, after he'd finished the story of the three little pigs with finger puppets. “This is the best day of my life.”  
His words were so honest, so full of emotion, that new tears welled up in Peter's eyes. He blinked them away and smiled, leaned over and kissed Wade. A little stuffed animal was trapped between them, a chick, and it squeaked.  
They laughed into the kiss, even more so when Bea imitated the sound.   
“You think you can manage another story before the food gets here?” Peter giggled, gesturing to the box of finger puppets they'd – true story – crafted together on a rainy Saturday night a while ago. Wade had seen a tutorial online and suggested they'd do this for Bea. After all, they could both sew pretty good from years of fixing their costumes, so this was an easy task while watching a movie.  
Peter suspected that this was Wade's true talent, his creativity, that Bea had brought out. After all, the older man was more or less constantly making things for her.   
“Sure thing, I'll even make it up,” Wade now promised and took some more puppets out of the box.

“So, once, there was this dude here, super cute but otherwise just a normal boy.” On his index finger, Wade held a puppet with brown hair, blue bottoms and a sweater. “But then there was a crazy mutant spider and bit him – AH!” He let a spider puppet dance on his other index finger and smashed the two together. Bea grinned at that, showing that she hadn't had any teeth, yet.   
Peter laughed and rolled onto his back to get his phone out of his pocket and snap a picture.   
“And then the normal guy transformed – whoosh – into The Amazing Spider-Man! Wow!” And, yes, they did have finger puppets in both their costumes. Wade had custom made them, of course.

 

Two days later, and because Wade had outdone himself tidying up their new place, Peter went upstairs again to clean their old apartment. He had no more assignments at least for this week, so he wanted to help a little, since they wanted the places spotless for the new tenants.

The rooms were cold already, snow piling up on the windowsills outside, but to Peter, it still felt somehow like home. They'd spent years in this place.   
As a couple, then married. Then parents.   
Peter smiled, while dunking a mop into a bucket with soapy water, and sweeping it over the bathroom floor. There were so many memories, good and bad, some painful, some so perfect that they made the young man laugh.   
Peter took a deep breath, mentally saying his goodbye to the apartment. They'd make lots of new memories with Bea, with each other. Peter thought about the hight chart Wade had bought and was probably just now sticking to the wall next to Bea's bedroom door. It showed different zoo animals, with the biggest one being a giraffe.   
Peter got dizzy with happiness when he thought about her some day being that big, being their big girl, their daughter. 

When he was finished with the bathroom, Peter cleaned the bedroom floor, then went into the living area. He remembered when they first moved into the place, how exciting it all was, how new. Now, it seemed like a whole lifetime ago, but in a good way. Peter would readily spend ten lifetimes, a thousand, with Wade.   
The young hero smiled, thinking about how he’s changed in the past years. He’d met Wade when he was still in college, but back then he’d hated this loud, weird, obnoxious person behind the mask. They only ever met in their costumes, but one night, just before Peter was about to start uni, Wade had actually began talking to him, asking him out.   
Peter declined at first, but something had made him show up at Wade’s place a few nights later. Maybe it was the fact that Wade had actually asked nicely, and let Peter have a first glimpse at that sweet, gentle man he really was.   
And now here they were, married, parents. So much had changed, and it was perfect this way. 

 

And Peter had noticed changes in Wade, too. One major change in particular.  
A night ago, when they were laying in bed, hoping the baby monitor would stay silent, Wade had admitted quietly that he had _hope_.   
Something Peter thought he'd never hear him say.   
Sure, Wade had gotten more confident with himself, finally believed that he was worth the love their shared, the bond they had. But they both knew until now, Wade hadn't really had any other chance than to continue his job as a Merc. Nobody would want to hire him because of his skin – well, and because he was a bit special sometimes – and the Avengers wouldn't take him in because of the killing.   
An endless circle.   
But somehow Bea had managed to break this circle, resulting in Wade actually having a choice now. A goal to work up to. 

Now, with the house slowly but steadily becoming theirs all together – other owners had heard of them buying apartments and some even made them good offers – Wade finally saw a different future for himself. 

********************************************************************************

The day before Christmas, it was time for Bea's monthly photo shoot. The baby book Peter bought had come with a set of stickers with numbers on them, one for every month of Bea's first year. They could be attached to about anything, so the first month it had been on Bea's bottle while Peter fed her, the second one on her playmat while Wade and her slept on it – Peter sneaked up on them.  
Soon it became a monthly event to set up a cute picture to make the whole year's collection something special. The third month was at the park, where Wade had found the first red leaf of the year and put the sticker on it, and then the leaf into Bea's stroller. The fourth one had to be something Thangsgiving themed, and with lots of teamwork Peter and Wade had managed to draw Bea's tiny tiny hand onto a sheet of paper, along with both of their's, and draw a turkey family out of it, surrounding the sticker with the number four on it. They took a family photo with Wade holding the picture and Peter holding Bea, one next to the other.   
“We gotta do something Christmas-y,” Wade said, rubbing his chin as the two man stood in the living room, contemplating what the next photo should be. 

They both looked in the direction of the massive tree Wade had brought up the day before, which had yet to be decorated. Peter smiled when the perfect idea came to him.   
“And what if we waited a day?”  
“Aw, not be on time?” Wade said, his brows furrowing a bit. Peter knew he secretly hated things not being perfect with Bea. He hadn't been on a job in a long time, but to Peter it didn't seem like Wade minded at all. He was actually enjoying his life with Bea, constantly making things for her.   
“Wait, here me out here,” Peter giggled and gestured to the tree. “We could take a super Christmas-y photo with the tree decorated and aunt May here with us. I wanted us to take a family picture anyways, so we just have to set up the camera once.”  
A smile slowly spread over Wade's face.   
“You know I love you, right? With all your smarts,” he said gently and kissed Peter, who laughed quietly.   
“With all the smarts, yeah. And I love you, too.”  
“With?” Wade teased, grinning against Peter’s lips.   
“With all _that_ ,” Peter said and reached down to squeeze Wade’s butt. The older man barked out a laugh and kissed Peter again, captured his mouth for so long that his head began to swim. 

 

They'd invited aunt May to stay with them during the holidays, eventually having decided to make the spare room a guest room for her to stay.   
They decorated the tree together and Peter was and taking lots of photos of everyone. He recorded how Wade got on a step ladder with Bea and helped her put the star on top of the tree. She had only just started to hold things, so he had to open her hand again and kind of pry it from the star. 

Before the big Christmas dinner – with a photo of uncle Ben sitting on the table just to have the family really complete – Peter set up the camera on a tripod and arranged everyone for the photo.  
Bea's five month picture showed their beautifully decorated room, and Peter, Wade, and aunt May sitting in front of the Christmas tree. Between Peter and Wade was aunt May, and in front of her a big present with Bea sitting on it. Aunt May had to hold Bea in a sitting position. In front of the present was the sticker, showing a big five. 

********************************************************************************

After Bea turned six months, they had yet another appointment with Dr. Dearing. The doctor's offices were quite busy, starting off the new year, so Peter and Wade had to make their way through to the play room, where they could kill some time with Bea.  
“I'll go to the reception, you two play nice!” Wade said happily and kissed Bea, then sat her on the playmat. She grabbed a building block right away, her new favourite, but didn't do much with it yet, other than put it in her mouth. So Peter stacked some for her to watch, while she sat around and every so often pushed his tower over and laughed.   
After a few minutes, Wade peeked around the door again, looking apologetic.  
“Petey, can you help me out a moment? They want us to fill in some new forms with the adoption and Bea turning six months 'n stuff. I … I don't wanna make a mistake, y'know,” he admitted and Peter smiled.   
“No problem. Bea plays real nice here, okay? Be right back,” he said to the little girl, not wanting to interrupt her playing with the blocks, because nowadays she hated being interrupted from something. Sometimes, when she wasn't ready to stop playing but it was mealtime – Peter insisted on fixed times for her – she screamed her head off.   
Also, the desk was literally down the hall and they'd both watch the door closely. Peter even stopped a nurse walking by and asked informed her that Bea was alone.   
“I'll keep an eye on her, you two go ahead,” she said, and once again Peter was glad at how nice the doctor's personnel here was.

“All that stuff here,” Wade said and held a clipboard up with a stack of documents attached. Peter nodded and scanned through it, then began quickly filling in the blanks.   
A shiver went down Peter's spine when he just turned to the next page, and his brows furrowed when he felt on edge, more so than usual.   
“Something’s not right,” he said right away, all his senses tingling with danger. Wade had never been one to doubt him, so he got up, one hand on the holster of the gun on his belt, and listened intently.   
Everything was relatively quiet in the doctor’s offices all around, even in the play area they left Bea in, there was barely a sound to hear. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just the SHIELD personnel walking around busily.

They observed the situation, barely noticing when two men walked past them down the hall, talking to each other in serious voices, one in doctor's attire, one in a suit. It was only the faint cold shiver running down Peter’s spine that tipped him off. Then a wire thin as a thread shimmered behind one guy’s ear, and Wade made a step forward when he saw it, too.   
The next second, they ran, producing guns from inside their suits and going right for the kid’s room.

“They want Bea!” Peter yelled in horror, then he was running already, Wade following him, guns drawn. His blood ran ice cold all of a sudden and all he wanted was to scream.   
The two guys noticed them quickly and fired blindly behind themselves. Peter jumped onto the ceiling and continued to pursue them, crawling along, fuming with pure rage.   
How in the world did these people get in there?!

Peter's heart skipped a beat when the men had reached the door before them.   
“Bea!”

From his position in the hallway, Peter could actually see the little girl through the open door. It was made for a stroller to fit through and so there was plenty of space to look in despite the two men standing in the frame.

Peter saw Bea's head whip around, saw her wide blue eyes focusing on the strange men.   
Then she screamed, and toys began flying everywhere, the whole room seemed to be captured in a huge storm.   
Their enemies were thrown to the opposite wall, where they stuck like it was one big magnet, toys and books clattering around them and sticking on as well. 

Peter felt his blood run ice cold through his veins, he’d never hear Bea make a sound like this. She didn’t cry, she screeched, a sound so pained and frightened that it physically hurt Peter to hear it.  
He rushed into the room, straining all his muscles to get to her and fell to his knees in front of her, pulling her into his arms, against his chest. Bea flailed her chubby arms and legs, wouldn’t stop kicking and hitting blindly around until Peter held her like he always did when feeding her.  
Only then, when her head was in the crook of his elbow, head leaning against his chest so she could hear Peter’s heartbeat, body securely curled up in Peter’s other arm – she finally stopped thrashing.  
That didn’t mean she got any more quiet. 

Chocking back a sob from relief from just holding her, Peter wrapped Bea up in his arms, hugging her tight.  
“Bea, please stop. They’re gone now, they’re gone. We’re here, we’ll protect you, it’s all good now,” Peter babbled, feeling and hearing things fall back to the ground.  
Peter felt her getting calmer, relaxing against his chest, so he began gently rocking her, humming her favourite lullaby. 

After what seemed like an hour, she stopped crying altogether and just cuddled up in Peter’s arms.   
He carefully dried her tears and kissed her reddened face, promising to keep her safe. She breathed heavily, looked so frightened, way too much for such a little child.   
“It’s all good now, nobody’s going to hurt you, I’m here, we’re here.”

Only now Peter head Wade’s dark voice, growling and yelling outside, and his heavy footsteps. He cursed the two guys constantly, hitting and kicking them, from what Peter could hear.   
When he came back into the room, he was breathing heavily, his eyes unsteady, but he zoomed right in on them.   
“Bea,” he breathed, and slumped down in front of Peter, hugging them both, then he leaned down and kissed Bea’s head. “I love you, Bea, I’m so sorry I’m sorry, I won’t leave you alone again,” he whispered and Peter pulled Wade in again.   
They sat huddled for long minutes until there was more commotion outside, Peter briefly wondering how in the world it could take so long for someone to come help them when this was A: a medical ward, B: for children and C: in a secure SHIELD base.  
It was outrageous. 

Peter felt anger rise up in his blood, but he pushed it down again, not wanting to let Bea feel any of it, not now. This was not about him at the moment, but that was hard to keep in mind.   
“Wade?” he asked, voice as calm as he could manage.   
“Yeah?” the Merc asked and sat back, quickly and with a jerked movement wiping the back of his hand over his eyes. Peter reached out awkwardly and held his hand for a moment, making sure his next words were clear, but quiet.   
“We give them hell for it.”  
Wade stared at him for a moment, then his eyes narrowed, his lips pressed into a thin line, and he nodded, a grim, dark promise. 

 

They watched from the playroom as agents filled the hallway, gaping at the bound and gagged – and beaten – attackers, then whisking them off somewhere.   
“Mr. Parker? Mr. Wilson?” someone shouted and Wade grunted. He got up, reloading both of his guns and putting just one back into his belt.   
“In here, of course. Where you jackasses weren’t!” he bellowed and Bea started whimpering again, making Wade look to her and apologize in soft words. He kissed her head when she buried her face onto Peter’s chest, refusing to let go even the tiniest bit.   
“I’m sorry, baby girl. I’ll tell those mean people to go away,” he promised, then kissed Peter swiftly on the cheek and left to yell at the SHIELD agents for a while. 

 

They were escorted to a secure floor immediately, despite Wade insisting he wanted to leave with them, get home where they’d be safe.   
“Who were these guys?” Peter demanded to know, his voice still wavering slightly from what had happened. He held Bea in his arms, not ever wanting to let her go again. She clung to him like a monkey, her little hands fisted into the fabric of his shirt. He was afraid of how long it would take to get her to relax, and eventually sleep again. And he hoped desperately that she wouldn’t have nightmares from that; she was too young to go through something like this. 

The agents around them looked uneasy, one of them listened intently to something coming through his comm. Sweat collected on his forehead and he looked about ready to pass out but Peter couldn’t have cared less. If he could, he would have knocked this guy out all by himself just for allowing something like this to happen.   
Someone would pay for this.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay I managed a Thursday XD Hope you guys are all doing well!  
> This chapter, we'll get to see how Wade and Peter deal with the aftermath of the attack on Bea. 
> 
> Enjoy <3

The SHIELD facility was buzzing like a beehive, but Peter and Wade barely registered that. They'd been brought into a secure room, and Peter's enhanced senses told him the walls around were probably twice as thick as all the others in the building.   
And those same senses also told him that the room was maybe not just to keep them and Bea safe and intruders out. But also to keep them in. 

Pushing down the panic trying to burn through his veins like acid, Peter turned to the Agents who brought them into the room.   
“Did you get any info out of them?” Peter asked with a glance at the monitor the Agent had called out of a panel in the wall. It was very slim and shiny, and Peter thought the whole place may or may not have some input by Stark.   
“No, not out of them, but-“  
“Let me try,” Wade threatened, but the Agent quickly talked over him.   
“But we could trace pollen on their clothes and some soil in the grooves of their shoes back to a specific area.”  
He then pushed a button on the panel closest to him and a grid formed over a topographical map, zooming in on a remote area in the Midwest.  
“We need some more time to specify, and don’t yet know what’s out there, but our teams will investigate... Just wanted to know if that area sparks anything? Any ties of you to that?”

He continued talking and Wade answered every now and again, but Peter barely heard them over the calculations he ran in his mind. It wasn’t all exact but he was pretty sure the place was a match with the data he’d collected for the Avengers. The criteria for a base. 

“Hey, wait up, why the hell do you think you can do that?”   
Peter looked up at Wade’s words, saw the Merc glaring at the Agent. Damn, Peter'd missed the Agent's last sentence.   
“Because it’s the safest option. So you’ll stay here until we have teams out at the location,” he explained, trying hard not to show how scared he was of Wade.

Hidden inside his pocket, Peter grabbed his phone and swiped a finger over the screen. Then he just held it in one corner, pressing on the Avengers Logo he knew was there, and sent a silent distress signal to the team.   
He tried to keep Wade from killing the Agent and then sat at the table with Bea.   
“Can we have a few minutes to ourselves? She needs to calm down,” Peter urged and hidden under the table he tickled Bea’s ankle to make her squirm and whine. He felt terrible doing this, but they needed to get the Agent away.   
“Sure, of course. I will see to Dr. Dearing meeting you here shortly,” he said, let the screen vanish and left. He was probably glad to be away from Wade.   
Neither of them had to check to know the panel and the door were locked.   
“What’s with her? Can I do something?” Wade asked right away and knelt in front of the chair.   
He didn’t react when Peter pulled out his phone, hidden by Wade’s body. There were no doubt cameras around.  
“She’s still a bit shaken up, maybe you can cheer her up?”  
Wade agreed and took Bea’s little hands to do the itsy-bitsy spider song with her. This gave Peter the opportunity to put his phone between them and write a text.

“If you can, get us out of here! Someone tried to get Bea IN HERE. It’s NOT SAFE. They’re not letting us leave. Hack the servers, they have a major lead on a location they might be hiding! Do what you can, please, ASAP.”  
Peter pressed send and the message deleted itself from his sending history. Because of his earlier distress signal, the Team would already have coordinates to their location.  
Wade had continued to play with Bea, who looked tired but thankfully wasn’t crying. But Wade and Peter knew her well enough to pick up the changes in her body language. Like the way she’d try to pull her arms and legs in a little to appear smaller and hide on Peter’s body. And the way she rubbed the side of her head on Peter’s chest.  
Eventually Peter turned her around in his arms and held her close, rocking her and watching as she lifted her chubby arm and sucked on her thumb. She rarely ever did that – they were slowly getting rid of binkys now, since Peter wanted to avoid tantrums later on – but Peter guessed that she needed to feel safe, so he let her this one time. 

“Well, at least we got an idea of her powers, now,” Peter mumbled, gently rocking Bea in his arms. She finally managed to pull her little legs in and curl up into a ball on Peter's lap.   
“So it was, what ... telekinesis?” Wade replied, carefully reaching over and stroking over Bea’s hand.   
“Probably ... I’m not entirely sure. All I saw was that she moved objects.”  
Wade sighed and looked at his phone to check the time. He still seemed angry, but in the lines between his brows Peter could also see that he was worried about Bea.   
“They better let us go home soon, I wanna be back in time for dinner.”  
Peter just nodded, but he did understand what his lover was hinting at. That SHIELD might not only hold them here for a little while, but that they planned on keeping Bea to study her powers.   
Peter had feared the moment her special abilities would show, he just wanted her to have a happy, carefree childhood. And he knew Wade had been terrified of this moment from the very start, because he knew from experience how it was to end up as a guinea pig.   
“We’ll just leave if they’re not here within the next 30 minutes,” Wade announced, obviously having picked up on Peter’s thoughts.   
“Yeah,” Peter agreed, only whispering although he was pretty sure that if the room was bugged the microphones would be strong enough to pick him up anyways. 

The two men looked into each other's eyes, neither sure of what to do now, how to handle this situation. But what they found in each other's gaze was the promise of keeping their daughter safe.   
Always. 

Right on cue the door opened and Wade's head whipped around, his shoulders tensed and Peter thought for a moment the Merc would jump their visitor. But when Dr. Dearing entered, Peter hoped that this situation would be cleared soon.   
She always seemed to be on their side.   
“Doctor, good to see you,” Peter sighed and clutched Bea to his chest, ready to leave. She whimpered when he tried to get up, so he stayed put.   
“Mr. Parker, Mr. Wilson,” she greeted, but her smile looked forced. Her and Peter shook hands but she didn't even reach out to Wade anymore, just nodded to him. The Merc's relationship with her was at least so good that he would nod back and greet her. 

The moment Peter's hopes faded into nothing was when there was an agent in a deep black suit following the doctor and shutting the door behind himself. His piercing grey eyes cut through the room and Peter felt a chill run down his spine, all his spider senses running wild.   
This guy meant danger. 

“Gentlemen. Let's not waste any more time, this is about the safety of our little asset here,” he said in a nasal voice and Peter felt his blood run ice cold all of a sudden. Asset?   
Did he really just call their daughter an asset?  
He continued to talk, as if not phased by Wade's hateful glare and Peter's open mouthed look of disbelief.   
“We will have to get Beatrice to another location immediately, to find out what her powers are about exactly, and how strongly they're already developed.”  
Before Wade could shoot him in the head, Peter shook his head forcefully.  
“There is no need for you to do any of that! It was agreed that there’d be no testing whatsoever!” Peter argued, holding Bea close when the little girl looked up to him. It vaguely occurred to him that she’d probably never heard him yell.   
“Mr. Parker, our agreement does not include the possibility of Beatrice using her powers already,” Dr. Dearing muttered, shooting side glances at the Agent, obviously very unhappy about him even being in the room. At least she still seemed loyal, but she just couldn't do anything about orders from her operatives.   
“She didn’t ‘use’ them, she was scared!”   
“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t investigate,” the Agent replied and lifted one hand from the table. For some reason, Peter feared he might pull out handcuffs or a weapon.  
“You’re not gonna investigate anything with our daughter!” Wade now growled and with his words, the air in the room changed.   
The look in the Agent’s eyes got icy for a moment and Peter was ready to web him to the next wall and bolt if necessary.   
“Mr. Wilson, you might have full custody, but SHIELD has the right to investigate cases of mutant powers.”

The next second, Peter was pulled back with his chair by and unseen force. He gasped and held on to Bea, but they didn’t stop nor could he get up until they’d reached the door.   
All eyes were on Bea again since it was clear that this had been her powers.   
“Alright, that’s it. We’re leaving, talk to our lawyer,” Wade said and picked up their bag, while Peter took Bea’s coat.   
“I can’t allow you to leave-!”  
”Don’t you even think of stopping us,” Wade growled, one hand suddenly on the agents collar and the other holding a loaded and ready gun.   
“We’ll be back in two days for our meeting with Dr. Dearing,” Peter just said evenly, internally pleased with the Agent’s pale face. Still, he wanted nothing more than to get their little girl out.   
“I will send you an e-mail with a reminder of time and place as usual,” was all the doctor said, and Peter felt that she was grateful for them telling the agent off, since she probably wasn't in the position to do so. 

Peter saw the Agent reach under the table and no doubt push an emergency button, but to everyone's surprise, no alarms blared. Instead, heavy boots stomped down the hallway. Wade cursed loudly, let another gun appear from somewhere, and kicked open the door, both weapons in front of him.   
“What the-?”  
Peter could see a telltale blue suit appear in the hallway and felt a rush of relief. Captain America stood in the hallway, behind him some of the Avengers Security personnel, blocking all other doors and another hallway leading into this one, keeping everyone rushing by at a distance.   
“Agent. Doctor,” the Captain greeted, his voice steely. “We will be taking care of the situation now, your services are not needed anymore.”  
He gestured for Peter and Wade to step forward and the Merc shoved Peter in front of him, so he and Bea were in the middle.   
“I guess you wanna go home?” the Captain asked with another stern look at the Agents around, who were peeking out of their office doors, no doubt having tried the panic button themselves. Peter wondered if it was Stark's doing that none of the tech seemed to work.   
“Yeah, for now, anyways. But ... your offer still stands, right? Just in case.”  
“Of course. We’ll get you home safely and leave some security personnel of our own nearby.”  
“Good. Thank you,” Peter sighed, grateful once again to have the Avengers on their side. 

Outside the facility, a van with tainted windows waited for them and the Captain mentioned that their own car had been brought home already by other staff members. They'd also searched it for bugs, but luckily nothing turned up.  
“Do you need a doctor for her? We have someone at Stark Tower,” the Captain offered, but Peter shook his head. Bea was still clinging to him like a Koala bear, not letting go for a second. Eventually he'd just wrapped her jacket around her back and held her in it, so she wouldn't be cold.   
“No, I think she's fine, thank you. But …” he started and thought about the glances Dr. Dearing had shot the agent. After all, she's always been loyal to them, it wasn't her fault that her employers were idiots.   
“Hey, could you … maybe tell Stark to check out Dr. Dearing's contract? We … quite like her as a doctor, but she seems unhappy to be at SHIELD … if you know what I mean,” Peter said and smirked when he saw the Captain smile knowingly.   
“I'll make sure to drop a hint. When I say too much, he's just gonna buy the whole medical centre.”  
“Yeah, better be subtle about it, then,” Peter joked, glad to have their allies close.   
“Might be a really good idea, really,” Captain America continued and looked into nothing. His eyes went darker for a moment, a grim, knowing shimmer appearing in them. “We don't know how many more children we find, and it'd be good to have someone we can trust take care of them.”  
There it was again, the notion that there were definitely more of these terrible “breeding facilities” out there somewhere. Places that made innocent women and children suffer every minute of every day.   
“Did you get my text?”  
“Yeah. Stark and Banner are hacking the servers as we speak, they'll call the moment they got the lead.”  
Peter nodded, relieved that they could get their hands on this viable piece of information. 

 

Their ride home was mostly silent, until Bea started rattling her toy and gurgling out sounds, making Wade grin. He loved hearing her and Peter smirked, covertly watching his lover out of the corner of his eye while cleaning her bottles.   
“What did it feel like?” Wade suddenly asked, startling Peter a little.   
“What?”  
“When she ... used her powers.”

“I didn’t feel anything. It was just like someone pulled our chair.”  
Wade nodded, looking serious at first, then the corner of his mouth twitched.   
“I’d love to know how she does it. It’s pretty cool,” he said, his voice soft and endearing. Of course he would just love her more, knowing how strong she was. And Peter had to admit, he liked the idea as well, that she wasn't as helpless as other babies her age. She could defend herself if need be … but …   
Peter just felt like she shouldn't _have to_.   
As much as he liked knowing about her powers, he also wanted to make sure she didn't have to use any of it. She should never feel threatened.   
“True, but we shouldn’t forget about her age. Think of her first ... well ... outburst. How do you teach a baby not to use it’s powers? What if a little temper tantrum trashes the whole apartment?”  
Wade fell silent on that one, just humming and looking deep in thought.   
“Well, she's a pretty chill baby.”  
“But she does throw tantrums. Maybe less than others, but they're there. We can't risk that happening outside,” Peter insisted, his mind running wild with all kinds of scenarios.  
“Let's just not fuss about it too much. She knows when we're stressed. And she's a smart baby, we could just teach her not to use the stuff. Like, ever. I think when she's alone and scared, she might just use them alright, like she did today.”  
“Hm,” Peter mumbled, agreeing to Wade's idea, but not quite satisfied. The way he thought about it, it would be hard for them to teach Bea that complex of a lesson, at her age. And when he thought back to his first days after the spider bite, he had no clue of how to even control all of his power, so how should such a little girl do it?  
They'd have a lot of work to do. 

Their first priority was Bea, however, so they focused all their attention on her. She got a nice bath and a massage before Peter sat on the sofa with her and Wade read her her favourite story. She was a little cranky, maybe too tired from the day, but she readily took the bottle Peter offered and suckled away while Wade read.  
He finished the whole story in a steady, calm voice, looking up with a gentle smile every now and again. While Peter had Bea on his lap on the sofa, Wade sat in front of them on the floor and Peter just couldn't get his eyes off him.   
The sheer love in his eyes melted Peter's heart.   
“And the sweet princess Bea lived happily ever after,” Wade concluded the story – all princesses in his stories were named Bea.  
“You know,” Peter began as Wade closed the book. Bea looked up to him with those perfect, blue eyes. Sometimes, when she looked at him like this, and the gentle glow of the reading lamp next to them fell on her just right, Peter thought she looked so much like Wade. “You know how much I love your papa? So much.”  
Wade grinned and rubbed his neck with one hand, no doubt blushing a bit under his scars. He reached out to stroke over one of Bea's hands. She turned her head, still suckling on the bottle, and looked at Wade. Immediately, his smile turned so much softer.   
“And I love your daddy. Like, at least this much,” he said softly, taking Bea's hand and opening it, while holding his own a bit further away, measuring a distance of about a foot.   
Peter laughed and kissed Bea's head, so grateful to have her well and healthy with them. 

They continued with her bedtime ritual soon and then left her alone to go to the bedroom. She needed some quiet time and they were both too exhausted to do anything more. Cuddled together under the blanket, they soon fell asleep to the sound of Bea's rhythmic breathing coming over the baby monitor. 

When it was time for her first milk of the night, Peter got up and told Wade to go back to sleep.   
“Imma help you ...”, he mumbled, his face buried in the pillow. Peter stifled a laugh when Wade snored again the next moment, probably not having been awake at all. 

That night, Peter stayed up after feeding Bea, sitting in the dark living room with his laptop.   
He researched all relevant websites, took notes and hints from everywhere, then read all of it again. It took hours to find out what they could really use, but eventually he had come up with a fitting outline of Bea’s powers.   
By three thirty, he felt drained, but there was no way he would let SHIELD or anybody else do any experiments on his daughter. So he pushed on, determined to find a way all by himself, going from his finds to devise a strategy for Bea’s next outburst.   
Since she was so little, their first goal was containment of her powers, just like Wade had proposed. Calming her so that she didn’t hurt herself and others.   
Later on, when she could really be talked to, they would have to explain to her why she sometimes couldn’t get angry. 

 

“What’s going on here?” Wade asked bewildered the next morning, startling Peter out of a daze.  
The coffee table and floor were littered with paper, Peter’s notebook filled with notes and his glasses sat on his nose a little crooked.   
“Where you up all night?” he asked, then started picking up the papers. It was a complete mess, as usual when Peter worked, but Wade knew there had to be a system to these. And sure enough, they were all marked in some corner, first a number, then a letter. Wade carefully went from one number to the other, until he had a neat little stack.  
“Yeah ... I think I found out about Bea’s powers.”  
Peter sighed and finally took off his glasses to rub his eyes. Wade wondered why he was even still wearing them, since the spider bite healed his bad sight. And it wasn't even prescriptions, but regular glass. Well, old habits died hard, Wade mused, while Peter stretched a bit.   
Also, Wade loved seeing his Spidey with glasses. 

Wade still seemed confused by the whole set up, but eventually smiled lovingly when Peter sighed loudly again. The Merc wasn't sure if Peter even realized, but he had this habit of sighing whenever he was overworked.   
“You want a coffee? Or some sleep before you try and explain your smartness to me,” he grinned and Peter laughed.  
“I’ll explain fist and then take a nap, so no on the coffee,” the younger man replied and stretched out on the sofa as Wade went to get breakfast and coffee for himself. He still had some time before Bea would wake up, and they talked in low voices as to not upset her.  
“So ... I checked some mutant websites on the deep web, trying to just get some general information about how the powers begin to form.”  
Wade hummed in agreement and heated up pre-made pancakes in a pan. He could've used the microwave, but the buzzing and beeping could wake Bea.   
“Then I researched some meditation techniques for children and babies and tried to work out a concept for how to help Bea with her next outbreak.”  
“And how is that going to work? I mean, are you just gonna talk to her or something? She doesn’t even know what she’s supposed to do and what meditating is. Hell, I don't even know.”  
“I thought about how certain things are connected to feelings. And I’ll start today by playing a song for her during a massage and from then on every day. Hopefully the next time she hears it during using her powers, it’ll calm her down.”  
Wade thought about that for a moment, then nodded to himself and put his pancakes on a plate. He sat down next to Peter and just wanted to take him into his arms for looking that tired, and for working so hard for their little girl.   
“Plan B would be a scent. That I try the same thing but with some kind of fragrant oil or maybe vanilla, so whenever she's upset I would just hold a little vial under her nose or something.”  
“Both sounds good, as far as my not-sciency brain can tell,” Wade admitted and Peter smiled. “Really, though, thanks for working so hard for her,” he said and leaned over to kiss Peter's cheek.   
“I'd do anything for her.”

Just after he'd changed Bea's diaper and prepared her a bottle, Peter went to bed – he'd insisted on letting Wade have his breakfast in peace.   
“You'll have your hands full the next few hours, so I might as well take one more dirty diaper,” he'd said and thrown the bundled up thing into the trash. Thankfully he could stay home today, since he'd only had to do research or something smart for uni.   
Wade wished him sweet dreams and thought about cooking a nice dinner for them that night, or maybe call a delivery of something Peter really liked. 

While Peter slept off his all-nighter, Wade took care of Bea, played with her and heard her super cute giggles, and worked on her rocking horse while she slept. It looked pretty good by now, he just needed to put on one more layer of paint, then it was time for varnishing.   
Wade grinned as he sat in their spare room in front of the open window.   
He couldn't wait to see Bea on her first birthday on her very own vintage rocking horse.   
He couldn't wait to see her smile and know that her life would be a safe and happy one.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Hope you had a good week so far ;) This chap, our two favourite heroes are gonna investigate a bit. 
> 
> Enjoy <3

In the very early morning hours of the next day, Peter's phone buzzed with an incoming call. He had just gotten up to tend to Bea, so he just accepted while he rocked her on his hip.   
She clung to him like a monkey again, something she always did just after getting up. For a while, she would just want to be held and cuddled, giving Peter enough time to prepare her breakfast.

_“Parker? This is Stark.”_  
“Uh, hi. Mr. Stark. Anything new on the location on the SHIELD servers?” Peter asked and smiled at Bea, despite being surprised to get a call from the Avengers leader himself.   
_“We did, and we'd like to discuss it in a meeting. Tonight? - You can come, too, but I couldn't reach Wilson.”_  
Peter smirked, no doubt Wade had turned off his phone for the night.  
“Sure, we'll come over.”  
 _”Bring the little one, too, we got someone to look after her. I personally designed the slide in the employee's kindergarten.”_  
Peter laughed and kissed Bea's head.   
“As long as she can't fly with it, I'm good.”   
Peter heard Stark joke about making a new version of the slide while Wade came out of the bedroom. His steps were heavy and he just had one eye open as he yawned.   
“Mornin',” the older man mumbled and kissed first Peter, then Bea, who stretched out her chubby hands. As sleepy as he still was, Wade smiled lovingly and took Bea, hugging her close to his chest and kissing her head again.   
_”Wilson, why the hell can't I reach your phone, huh? You're supposed to jump in for Parker!”_ Stark's voice startled the Merc, who pulled a face at the phone on the kitchen counter.   
“'Cause we have a baby crying every night and I needed some sleep if you want me to shoot some people anytime soon. Can't do that when I'm tired,” Wade growled, but mumbled something about activating his phone again soon.   
_”You better. Let Parker tell you about today, I gotta go. The algorithm is almost done analysing, talk about the results later on the meeting.”_  
With that, Stark hung up and Peter looked over to where Wade was still cuddling Bea. He looked like he didn't have a care in the world, eyes closed, his features relaxes. It seemed like every little bit of stress evaporated from Wade whenever he held their little girl.  
It was one of the best things to see. 

“So, Stark wants us in today for a meeting, to discuss his findings and what to do with them. I guess … well, maybe there's a new mission,” Peter concluded, his voice soft and gentle because of Bea. She had her routine, so whatever the news were, Peter wouldn't rush or raise his voice.   
As long as they could manage Bea would always be the priority.  
“Cool. Let's hope we can get going soon. - Oh, I thought about something,” Wade mumbled and trailed off, a dreamy smile on his lips when Bea babbled to him. For a moment, Peter thought Wade's skin had gotten a lot better, but sometimes it just was that way in the mornings.   
“You are gorgeous. Both of you,” Peter said nonetheless, smiling when Wade looked up in surprise.   
“Aw, look who's all in love with us. Huh, little Bea? Does Daddy love us?”  
“He does. A lot. Like, this much, at least,” Peter replied and this time it was him taking Bea's little hand and measuring about a foot in distance with his own. Wade laughed and it sounded light and happy and carefree. Wonderful.   
“Let's get this baby bear some breakfast, shall we? I'll make pancakes for us.”  
Peter agreed and soon they had a nice family breakfast at the big dining table near the window. While Peter fed Bea a bottle of milk, Wade fed Peter one forkful of pancake after the other, insisting that the younger man needed a big breakfast to have enough energy for the day. 

“What was your idea about?”  
“Huh?” Wade said over his mug of coffee.  
“You said you had an idea, what was it?”  
Wade took another sip before setting his mug down and reaching over the table to get a cloth that he could drape over Peter's shoulder for later. It smelled like detergent and that distinct, sweet smell of baby.  
“Yeah, I thought about the spare room.”  
“Wanna make it your workspace?” Peter guessed with a smile, thinking of all the things Wade had already made for Bea. There was of course the box of finger puppets, then he'd made a big giraffe out of wood to put on her wall and measure her height on later. The rocking horse was looking prettier every day and Peter had noticed the two books featuring crafting ideas for toddlers on Wade's night stand.  
“What, no. I can have the old janitor's shop in the basement when we own the rest of the house. Nah, I thought about converting it into a guest room when the horse is done.”  
“For aunt May?” Peter asked, happiness filling his heart at the thought of May being with them. Peter had proposed to her that she could move in an apartment rent-free, but just as he thought she wouldn't leave the house.   
“Yeah, or for a babysitter to stay should we ever need one. Or if I snore too loud and you want me out of the bedroom,” Wade added and Peter laughed loudly.   
“Honey, as if that would still bother me after six years!” he giggled and Wade grinned broadly. Peter shook his head with a smile, thinking about what he'd just said. “I can't believe it's been six years already.”  
“Tired of me, yet?” Wade teased and Peter shook his head again.   
“Never,” Peter breathed, his gaze lovingly on Bea, then on Wade. “I love you.”  
“Love you, too. And this one.”  
Wade leaned over and kissed the top of Bea's head, then took another pancake for himself. “Don't worry, I'll give you half of it. I can't wait until Bea can eat real people food and not just that boob juice.”  
“It's not boob juice.”  
“Artificial boob juice. Wait, that sounds like it's from silicone boobs.”   
Peter sighed and put the now empty bottle down, then lifted Bea onto his shoulder to burp.   
“I'll definitely never tire of hearing comments like those from you,” he said with a smirk and Wade laughed.   
“Well, yeah, duh, cause it's prime entertainment material.”

 

After breakfast it was naptime again for Bea, and the two men took the time to clean their place and set up a time for the meeting today.   
“Ah, we got a code for Bea,” Peter mentioned after his phone beeped. He showed the screen to Wade, where a kind of barcode was shown together with a number.   
“And with that she can go into the employee's kindergarten?” Wade wanted to know, while glancing over at the crib. Bea was slowly waking up, but they had about twenty more minutes before she's try to sit up on her own. They usually let her get up by herself, anything else made her a bit grumpy and they didn't want that today.   
“Yeah … We'll just give our fingerprint at the door, and then nobody can even see her but the teachers and us.”  
“Wow … but … y'know, about her … powers,” Wade began, unsure of how to even phrase it. He didn't want to talk bad about their girl, but they had to be a bit more careful with her now.   
“You're worried because she could cry and use them? Yeah, me too,” Peter replied quietly. Bea couldn't possibly understand them already, but they still didn't ever talk _about_ her like she wasn't there when she was clearly around.   
“Yeah.”  
“I don't think she'll use them. As long as she's not scared like last time. And I set a lot more trust in Stark's staff than in any of SHIELD's.”  
“That's for sure. But let's just … look around first, before we leave her there.”  
“We will. I'll make sure to ask the staff some questions.”  
“And I'll check if the place is secure. I mean, if I can't don't know a way in, nobody does.”  
Peter smiled at that, since it was probably true. But also because he loved having Wade so protective of Bea, especially after what happened. 

An hour before the set meeting time, they started to pack their things. Taking a baby out for a few hours required a lot more things than one would think.   
Peter had already assembled most of the things they needed in Bea's new pink diaper bag – Wade had bought it and loved to carry it around, eventually Peter got around to not feeling embarrassed over it anymore.  
“We just have to stop by the campus, I need to return some books and pick some more up for my next assignment,” he mentioned while stuffing Bea's favourite rattling toy into the bag.   
“No problem. Gotta make sure you got all your smart stuff,” Wade said, while starting to dress Bea for the day out. She babbled and waved around with a little rattling toy, looking like the last day hadn't troubled her a bit. Wade hoped that this was true.   
To make her smile, he lifted her up and in the air after he'd dressed her, letting her fly around while making whooshing sounds. She waved her little arms happily and grinned. 

 

Wade stayed in the car with Bea, while Peter got his books in record time. He'd told Wade that he wanted to do a 2.0 version of one of his projects from college, so that he could get a comparison between the two and an even better grade. Really, Wade loved it when Peter talked smart to him.   
Back on the road to Avengers Tower, Wade had another idea.   
“You know, if it works, maybe you could talk about your plan for Bea? Like, at Xavier's school or at some kind of meet up for mutant parents and such,” Wade proposed, always loving to promote his lover's intelligence.   
“Maybe. If it works. I'm still not quite sure, but since I already got a lot written for it, maybe I'll just publish a paper on it and give it to the school for an exclusive preview for one of their classes.”  
“Hey … ya think we should visit? I mean, later. Bea has to go to school eventually,” Wade mentioned, feeling a little weird talking about her like that. Like she was about to grow up any second now.   
“I don't know …,” Peter mumbled. “I'd love for her to go to a regular school. Interact with human kids. It's not like she has to hide her powers a lot on an everyday level, and as she gets older she'll understand why she can't use them when getting angry in public.”  
Wade nodded absently, thinking about this as he wove his way through the ever heavy city traffic. He wanted Bea to grow up normally, too. But he also wanted her to be as safe as possible. And her mutant needs – whatever those turned out to be – needed to be tended to as well, didn't they?  
“Let's think about that stuff again when we're super old 'n bald and it's time for her to go to school;” Wade said and heard Peter laugh in the back seat.   
“Just how fast do you think we'll age? And you're already bald!”  
“I'll be even balder, you'll see. And you will, too. Yeah, we'll be super hot grandpas, still gett'n it on and all,” he joked and listened happily to Peter's laugh again. He heard Bea's toy rattle – she always got excited when they laughed. 

 

At the Tower they were met at the reception by a lady in a colorful shirt, her name tag had a little cartoon style Iron Man flying on the side and read “Amy”  
“Hi, I’m the Kindergarten teacher, I’m here to show you around,” she said, recognizing them right away. They greeted one another and Peter had a good feeling about her. And about the three security doors they’d passed just on the way from the parking basement to the reception. The young woman also greeted Bea warmly, then showed them to the kindergarten floor, where it was instantly louder when they passed another heavy door.  
But unlike the muted, pristine colors of the office floors above and below, the walls here were painted with big circles in different colors, like someone had thrown paint drenched footballs onto the wall. It looked like a happy and safe place for a child – everything was small and in easy reach for the little ones.   
“Will Bea stay with other children?” Peter asked while carrying their little girl. She had played with some other children in swim class and on the playground, but he didn’t know how he’d feel about having her in a big group, where some other child might upset her and trigger her powers.   
“No, not today. I’ll just watch her and play with her until you’re done with your meeting with Mr. Stark.”  
So the leader had called in this teacher just to babysit their daughter. Peter liked this place so much more than the SHIELD facility he could barely contain a grin. Even Wade seemed to like it, he looked at the heavy security doors they passed with admiration.  
“Those are fire resistant, huh?” he asked when they went through another doorway.   
“Yes, the whole floor is made to withstand fire, flooding, smoke and bullets. We even have our own evacuation hallways that lead to a panic room in another building around. Unfortunately I cannot tell you which one, since that’s classified,” she explained, her voice always soft and friendly. Peter was somehow reminded of his childhood days and the teachers that had taken care of him. Probably a good sign.  
When she couldn’t see them, Peter nodded to Wade and he smirked. 

They reached a smaller room – other than the huge playrooms for the kindergarten groups they’d passed – and Amy led them inside. They saw a little wooden play structure bolted to the wall, underneath and around the walls were lined with colorful padding. A slide led into a ballpit and on another wall they saw a blackboard with a bucket of chalk and a low shelf with children’s books on them.   
“Bea, if you don’t wanna stay in here, I will,” Wade joked and Amy laughed. Peter saw a changing table on a far wall and placed Bea’s bag next to it. There was even a crib and a rocking chair in there, and a small kitchenette with a stove and fridge for snacktime.   
“Yeah, it’s beautiful here. Do you use this room often?” Peter asked, covertly wanting to know if it often happened that single children were looked after on these floors. He didn’t want Bea to stand out somehow, because he didn’t want attention on her even being here. But Amy nodded excitedly.   
“Yes, about twice every week. We at Stark Industries believe that family life and business can and should be manageable together. So ever since I got my own little one, I’m on call to tend to our client’s children in here on in the floor above for the older children.”  
Now Peter really felt comfortable in here, especially since he was being reminded that this was in fact Stark Industries. There was so much security around, Bea would be just fine for a while.   
“Alright, then let’s get going, before Stark thinks we ditched him,” Peter joked, but even to him his voice sounded a bit dull. He wasn’t all that confident about leaving Bea, even though the place was fine to him.   
“You can check the security camera whenever you like, just type Bea’s code into your S.I.App on your phone and you can watch us here,” Amy proposed, maybe guessing Peter’s thoughts.   
“Now, that’s cool,” Wade said and was already typing on his phone. As on-call members of the Avengers they’d gotten an App for the Tower installed on their phones that allowed them all kinds of things, and now Wade turned around and waved in the air. “Look, Spidey, I’m totally spying on you,” he said happily and Peter glanced over at his phone.   
“I hope this isn’t too intrusive ... we just had ... a little incident where people wanted to harm her.”  
“Absolutely not, Mr. Parker. It’s perfectly fine with me, it’s even standard protocoll – all areas except the restrooms have to be monitored. I personally don’t mind at all, anyways. There’s security cameras everywhere you go these days, and as long as there are non in my home, I’m fine with that,” she said and seemed genuine about it. Peter nodded and looked at Bea, who had watched the woman closely the whole time.   
“You wanna say hi?” he asked and stepped closer, so that Amy could take Bea’s hand. After a moment of uncertainty she smiled at Amy was even okay with being held.   
“Well, aren’t you a pretty girl,” Amy said and tickled Bea, which made her squeal. 

Even though it was hard for both of them, Wade and Peter quickly said goodbye to Bea and promised her to be back soon – not sure if she understood it yet, but she should know at least. She didn’t cry, but didn’t smile either. Wade left the app open on his phone the whole time, even as they went into the meeting room they’d been told at the reception. 

 

“There you two are. We can finally start, then;” Stark mutterted, looking like he hadn’t slept in days. Which was probably right.   
Peter rolled his eyes, but Wade scowled and carefully placed his phone on the table so that they could always see the screen.   
“We had to check out your babysitter. Sorry if that hurts your ego, but we ain’t just trusting anyone with Bea.”  
“We know that, no hard feelings,” the Captain quickly said to calm the situation. He stood up and pressed a button on the table that audibly locked the door behind them. Around the table quite a lot of people were gathered – Peter nodded a greeting to Logan and a guy he knew from the last mission, Sam Wilson.   
There were two young people he didn’t know, they looked like brother and sister and the boy had white hair. 

“Let’s start, then,” Stark said and drew the attention to the front of the room, where several computer panels and large screens were mounted. “This is what the programme came up with.”  
The square zoomed further in on the map and eventually little dots showed up which grew to buildings and streets.   
“This is massive ...,” Peter commented, his eyebrows furrowed. Wade leaned forward and scanned the map.   
”Is that military?” he said, probably years of experience with breaking in telling him something.   
”Yeah. Worse than that, actually,” Stark sighed and looked like he’d eaten something bad.   
“It’s still in use.”

His words hung in the room for a moment, then Hawkeye sat up in his chair, looking confused.  
“You mean that like someone uses it, right? Not that the actual US military uses this, right?”  
“I mean it as in the fucking US military uses a base that HYDRA uses as well. I have no clue if they know about each other or if the whole base is still HYDRA or what’s going on there.”  
“Do we need to find that out? Can’t we just do a raid on them?” a woman with flaming red hair – the Black Widow – said evenly. Peter secretly was a bit scared of her.   
“And what kind of publicity would this give us? The Avengers attacking the US military?”  
“You’re Captain _America_ , if anyone can justify that, you can,” Hawkeye joked, but the atmosphere in the room was too tense for anyone to react.   
“We need evidence,” Peter said, wanting to run in there and just yell at everyone, but that was just him being irrational. After all, he wasn’t even going on this mission, he knew.   
“I found the two guys who attacked you at SHIELD, they’re in the base’s files.”  
Stark spoke slowly, as if he ddn’t like what he had uncovered. “It said they work for a specialized ‘medical research department’.”  
“Medical as in human testing?”  
“Probably.”  
The Captain and Stark looked at each other, both looking ready to fight. Everyone tried to thing of _something_ that could get them going. 

They all sat in silence, brooding, thinking, trying to place the pieces together. Peter could almost taste it on his tongue, they were so close.   
He let his gaze wander a bit and suddenly sat up straighter when it fell on a badge on the table. It was Hawkeyes, scattered next to his phone and a paper cup of coffee. 

“When were they hired?” Peter blurted out, having to get up now to think. Stark looked at him only for a moment, then turned to his computer panel to type furiously. Peter stood next to him at another panel, starting to type as well, bringing up a calendar and marking some dates on it that he pulled from news websites.   
“This is the date when Cap brought down the carriers, after that HYDRA went down. Trials started on those days here. If it’s closely after that-“  
“We got ‘em!” Stark said triumphantly and Peter jumped.   
“Try and go through the whole HR data, see who they employed in that same time frame-“  
“And if they were known to work under people who turned out HYRDA,” Stark concluded and Peter felt his heart beat faster. He got anxious at the same time and turned around to look at the screen of Wade’s phone, but Bea was doing fine, she played with wooden blocks on the padded floor.   
A loading bar crept over the screen and every pair of eyes in the room was glued to it, until it reached the end and a little beep told them the search had been complete. Stark let the finds show on the big screen that dominated most of the wall opposite them.   
There were at least forty people showing up.   
“All of them worked with HYDRA. Had their mouths shut nice and tight while their bosses went down, just to keep up the work.”  
“The military probably doesn’t know, either,” Wade guessed and crossed his arms. “They wouldn’t be dumb enough to bribe their way in. They must’ve kept some kind of disguise, testing for bioweaponry or something of that sort. And who goes in to check if that’s true? Who’s gonna be all like ‘hey guys lemme check if yo fucking ebola-chicken-pocks-mutation-killer-virus is fo’ real’?”  
Well, he wasn’t wrong.   
“We can go in with that. It’s our proof,” Peter said and Wade nodded.   
“ _If_ we find the facility. If not ... well, then we’ll have a lot of explaining to do,” the Captain mentioned, looking through the room at each one of his team members. “I need you all to agree on that, because it might not end pretty. If we’re wrong with that, then we’ll have to face the public.”  
“And if we’re right, we’re saving innocent women and children. I’m in,” Hawkeye said honestly, lifting his hand a bit. The Black Widow did the same. So did Stark, Wade, Logan, Sam and the two younger people Peter still didn’t know.   
Peter and Dr. Banner looked at each other and smirked, because they both weren’t going anywhere. But while Banner / the Hulk were backup if things got really bad, Peter would stay behind and take care of Bea. Which was okay for him, as long as the others would finally find something.   
The Captain smiled just a little.   
“Well, at least we do this together.”  
“Your favourite, I know. We start after dark today, fly in with the new stealth mode jet I developed. Cap’ll brief you on the flight,” Stark said and the team nodded, while Peter looked to the phone’s screen again, checking for Bea. She was still doing just fine, waving her arms around in the ball pit, looking like she had the time of her life sending all the colorful plastic balls flying. 

“Looks like we’re all set, then. Meet you guys back here at eight,” Cap said and dismissed the meeting after that. Most team members weren’t in any hurry, but Peter and Wade sprung into action, since they had to arrange some things first.   
”Do you guys need any help?” Stark called after them when they were already at the door, but Peter just waved a hand.   
”No thanks! I’ll call Jarvis if I need anything,” he said quickly and went out into the hallway after Wade. 

They had picked up Bea in no time, cuddling and kissing her, and thanking the lovely Amy for taking care of her.   
“You’re very welcome,” she said happily and escorted them back outside.   
“Hey, do you have a business card or something? In case we ever need a babysitter – I mean, if you’re available for that.”  
”Only for VIP members, but I’m sure Mr. Stark can arrange that,” she answered with a knowing smile, and handed them their card. Peter didn’t like that they had to leave in such a hurry, but they couldn’t help it. 

In no time they were back home and packing some things while Peter called aunt May to ask if he could stay over for maybe two days.   
”Peter, my boy, of course you can,” she answered on the other end of the line. “I’m just about to finish a cardigan for Bea, she’s gonna look so cute in it.”  
Peter smiled while putting some clothes for himself into a suitcase. Wade brought Bea’s clothes over and put them in as well. For just those few days, they could share the luggage. And there was now a supply of toiletries for all of them at aunt May’s place, so Peter just needed to pack his toothbrush.   
“I hope we’ll be back soon, I text you when we’re on the way back, promise,” Wade said and kissed Peter’s cheek when walking by with Bea’s favourite blanket.   
“Hey,” Peter said and grabbed Wade’s arm. The Merc looked over and Peter saw the hidden anger in his eyes. He was ready to get revenge for Bea’s mother, and all of those who had to suffer.   
“Be safe. Promise me that instead.”  
Wade’s eyes went softer and he nodded, then stepped closer to brush his lips over Peter’s in a real kiss.   
“I will.”


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Super long chapter just for you today! I just couldn't leave out the last part and it didn't quite fit into the next chap, so here you go <3
> 
> See you next week, enjoy <3

The next day Peter drove all the way to aunt May's from uni. His mind wandered while he steered the car – the ride with a bus or the subway to aunt May's would take too long – through the afternoon traffic. Thankfully the streets weren't as packed the closer he came to the house.  
Peter was happy to be with his aunt, to see her with Bea and spend some quality time with her. But on the other hand he missed Wade so much, and worried what the Merc must go through right this moment. 

The garage opened just when Peter passed the house – of course aunt May had waited for him. He smiled, knowing she'd have a hot tea and a snack prepared for him. It was kind of like being a teenager again, coming home after a long schoolday.  
Peter carefully rolled into the garage – there hadn't been a car in there for a long time, but they'd all worked together to make some space for Peter's and Wade's car for whenever they stayed.  
Peter's smile widened when he thought that they had a second home here.  
He'd always had, since he'd grown up in the house with his aunt and uncle, but since Bea was there, they had a room for her upstairs, a bedroom and their own toiletries in the bathroom. There was a highchair in the kitchen and a play pen and a bin of toys in the living room.  
It felt good knowing that they'd always have a save haven, a place they could call home aside from their apartment.  
Especially now.  
“Look who's here,” aunt May greeted Peter with a happy smile, Bea in her arms. The little girl turned her head around and looked at him, a gurgling sound in her throat maybe her way of saying welcome home.  
“Hi,” Peter said and kissed first Bea's, then aunt May's cheek. “Everything okay?”  
“Oh, she was a little angel, as usual. Such a sweet girl,” May answered and hugged Bea close, cuddling her which she seemed to like. She looked at Peter again and he stretched his arms out for her, waiting for her to do the same before taking her from May.  
“Hmm, I missed you,” Peter sighed and held his little girl, kissing her again, thinking about how Wade always did that whenever he was away from her. Peter wondered just how much he must miss her, since he was usually with her, whereas Peter was used to not seeing her for a few hours every day.  
Peter reminded himself to take a photo of them tonight, just before bedtime – because Wade loved to see Bea in her little jumper-style pyjamas – and send it to Wade.  
“So, tell me about your day, my love. Are you hungry?”  
Peter smiled at May's words, feeling very warm and welcome and just … _home_. The only thing keeping this moment from being perfect was Wade. 

 

What he didn't expect was that Wade actually called after receiving the picture from Peter.  
_”This is the fucking cutest thing in the universe, Petey. Did you guys match on purpose? I need one of those shirts, too.”_  
Peter laughed and slipped under the blankets in the bedroom, looking over at the baby monitor and seeing Bea sleep. She was wearing a yellow jumper to sleep in, and Peter just happened to wear a yellow shirt that day, too.  
“No, it was coincidence.”  
_”A super cute one. Thanks for the picture,”_ Wade said and Peter's smile fell just a little, got softer, longing.  
“I miss you. We. Miss you,” he added and heard Wade sigh.  
_”I miss you guys, too.”_  
There was a little pause, and Peter thought he could almost feel Wade by his side, smell him, see the little crease between his eyebrows that was always there when he sighed like this.  
“So, how are things going? Are you alright?”

 _”Yeah, all peachy, way too chill over here. We almost got caught snooping around, so we’ll wait another night in the jet. It's all super stealth and such, and they’ll be flying a mission tomorrow, so the base will be a little less crowded.”_  
Peter nodded, looking to the baby monitor again where he could see Bea sleeping soundly, her arms stretched out to either side.  
“Have you got an idea of how to get into the facility? It has to be underground,” Peter mentioned, wishing he could at least help from afar like Banner, working out strategies and providing data.  
_”Yeah, Stark has a plan, but I can’t tell you what it is, ‘cause it’s super duper classified ‘n all. But we got a plan, and it’s a pretty good one. We’ll get in there and give ‘em hell.”_  
Peter remembered the day that Bea was attacked by those two HYDRA agents, where he’d said those words to Wade.  
“I hope so. Be safe, honey.”  
_”I will. And you give this little cutie bear a kiss from me.”_  
There were voices in the background and Wade sighed. _”Gotta go, my genius is needed,”_ he joked and Peter smiled.  
“It always is. Love you.”  
_“Love you, too, sweetie. And tell Bea I love her, too. Bye.”_  
“Bye.”  
Peter listened to the clicking sound that interrupted the connection, then to the beeping that followed for a few seconds. Eventually he hung up, too, and placed his phone on the night stand where he could easily reach it. Bea kicked her legs inside her sleeping bag, and Peter listened into the room with the monitor, but she just kept on breathing deeply, relaxed and calm. He smiled, listened to her some more, because it always calmed him down.  
Peter thought about whether or not he should just take her to bed with him the next time she woke up. She wouldn’t mind, they let her sleep in their big bed often enough in the morning, or cuddled on the sofa after the last milk of the night.  
With the sound of her breathing in his ear, Peter’s eyes began to droop and he soon fell asleep, thinking of milk and home and Wade.

His next day at uni went by uneventful, a bit boring actually. Peter found himself wondering more than once what Wade was doing, what he'd found out already. If he was alright.  
He had no illusions about the dangers of this mission, but he trusted in Wade's long years of experience.  
After uni Peter went to a big supermarket and worked on the long shopping list. Some of it was for their apartment – he'd just bring it in and leave again – but most of it was for aunt May. Peter wanted to stock up her pantry as a thank you for helping them out all the time. He was glad, though, because the long shopping tour distracted him from worrying. 

 

That night he didn't hear from Wade, got no response to a photo of Bea in the baby tub, sitting next to a rubber ducky that was almost her size. Aunt May had bought it a while ago, it was empty inside and could hold bath toys.  
Peter saved the photo and thought about putting it into Bea's book. There were some empty pages, so maybe he'd dedicate one to bath time. 

By next morning Wade still hadn't called or even written a text, and Peter checked his phone over and over again throughout the day. Actually the mission was just planned for three days, but in the late afternoon there was still no sound from Wade.  
Nerves running wild, Peter called up what was left of Avengers mission control at the tower, to get some information on how things were going.  
_”I haven't heard much since last night,”_ Dr. Banner said and there was the clicking of a keyboard in the background. He'd stayed behind to monitor the mission, since he had a long – and painful – history with the military and nobody wanted him to add to that.  
“Do you think something is wrong?” Peter asked, voice low because aunt May was upstairs dressing Bea. He was standing in front of his desk, too nervous to sit.  
_”No, I think it's good that we don't hear anything. That's also no bad news, right? If they called for backup or medical assistance I'd be more worried. They went in around 3 am, when most of the teams on site had been changed to night shifts with less staff. I say we give them another day before we call them up.”_  
Peter felt the doctor's relaxed voice calm him down. Dr. Banner was a very smart man, and when he wasn't worried, Peter would do his best not to be, either.  
“Alright, then we'll wait.”  
_”How's the little one doing?_  
Peter smiled – it seemed like most of the Avengers had a soft spot for their girl. Well, who didn't, Peter thought proudly. She was amazing.  
“She's great, everything's fine over here. Actually it's almost bedtime, so I better get going.”  
They said their goodbye's and ended the call, Peter turning his phone to vibration and setting it on the nighstand.  
He still thought about Wade and the mission, but his first priority now had to be Bea, who deserved to be brought to bed just as lovingly as any other day. Whatever happened in their lives, Peter and Wade would always give her the most they could, which also counted for attention. 

When the little girl was sleeping soundly and Peter went to bed himself, he spent long minutes looking through a folder full of photos. The most recent one of Bea was at the top left, then there were lots more of her, but also of Wade.  
How he grinned when Bea had first sat up, holding onto his hands still. How the two of them took a nap together, Bea curled up in Wade's muscular arms, how he held her safely against his chest.  
With the painful tug of longing in his heart, Peter fell asleep soon next to the screen of his phone, which still showed their first ever family picture. 

 

“And don't forget that your assignments have to be in this week, due to Dr. Henrich's temporary leave.”  
The professor's voice snapped Peter out of his thoughts the next morning. Peter shook his head quickly, looking at what the projector showed on the wall. He had completely forgotten about one of his professors leaving due to some problems in the family.  
The assignment in question wasn't even done, yet, he still needed to go over it one more time to work on some details.  
Peter sighed heavily, scribbling a note into his planer, where Wade had made him a bookmark out of Bea's photos. 

 

“You're going?” aunt May asked in surprise this afternoon, when Peter sat in the kitchen with her. Bea was just down for her second nap of the day, and Peter had already packed some of her favourite toys upstairs.  
“Yeah, I've got too much work piling up if I don't start today. And I need to use my desktop computer for most of it, so that means I'll have to get home.”  
“I could come with you, if you want. Take care of Bea. Or you get your computer and work from here,” May offered and Peter smiled. He didn't tell her that dismantling his office like that would cost him hours.  
“Thanks, but I think I got it. Wade should be home either tonight or tomorrow, if I understood him right. And I know you got your Bridge meetup tomorrow.”  
She laughed, while Peter was glad she had those frequent days out, talking with the ladies of the neighborhood. He was a bit nervous of being alone with Bea, but then again it was probable just for a few hours or one day, and he could always come back to aunt May's place if he wasn't feeling okay with it. She said so herself, made him promise to come over should anything happen, or call at least.  
“Well, and I do have to show everyone that photo of my adorable grandchild in the tub. Did I mention that I'm the first grandma of a little girl?”  
“You did,” Peter grinned. “Making others jealous isn't very nice, aunt May,” he pretended to scold and they both laughed.  
“Come on, I can brag just a bit.”

They began cleaning the kitchen together, and for a moment Peter contemplated staying. He loved being with his aunt.  
But he also knew he couldn't just not finish his assignment, he'd hate himself for passing out on the points, and he'd feel like a bad role model for Bea.  
“Have you told Wade about it?” May asked suddenly, while packing up the last day's leftovers and a homemade chicken casserole. Apparently aunt May thought Peter would starve to death the next day or two alone. He smiled and thought at least he could save time since he didn't have to cook. Also, he knew Wade loved aunt May's cooking, so he'd save him some.  
“No, I couldn't reach him. But I know he'll check his phone on his way back, so I'll leave him a message.”  
“I hope he can come home soon, he hasn't been away in a long time,” aunt May said with a sigh, and Peter knew she liked it best when the whole family was complete. And Peter had to admit that although it was just a few days, he missed Wade a lot. 

 

He'd gone home that late afternoon, immediately setting to work on his paper, even editing the photographs of his experimentation setup to illustrate it all. Bea was a little angel, playing in her jumper next to Peter's desk, later drinking all her milk and falling asleep fast, giving him more time to write.  
He went to sleep only after Bea's nighttime bottle – she woke up only once now every night to drink – and got up early the next day to continue working. Of course he called aunt May, just to let her know how he was doing.  
“No, I'm really fine. And almost done with the final draft for the paper. I'll just need to proofread it after lunch and then I'll be all set,” he explained, carefully pushing Bea's rocking seat with his foot to get it to move again. She was making the cutest face in it, already half asleep from the movement.  
_”Do you know when Wade's coming back?”_ she asked, something rustling in the background. She was probably just packing some snacks for her meetup.  
“No, but I think it can't be long. I'll call again when he's not here by Bea's bedtime.”

Thankfully Peter didn't have to call the Tower again, because he heard heavy steps coming through the hallway in the afternoon. Steps that he couldn't possible mistake.  
Peter put his book down with a confused look. Normally the Merc just cluttered in with all his weapons and gear through the window, after he’d climbed the fire exit.  
Their key clicked in the lock and Peter got up, smile on his lips to greet his lover.  
“Hey ...” Wade muttered when coming in and Peter had a sinking feeling in his heart. This wasn’t the cheerful Wade that usually returned to them after missions. Something happened.  
“Hey,” Peter replied and they looked at each other just for a brief second, then they fell into each other’s arms. 

Neither of them spoke, they just held each other.  
There was a lump in Peter’s throat when Wade rested his head on the younger man’s shoulder, breathing out a sigh.  
“I missed you guys,” he simply said, voice hoarser then usual. Peter wanted to say something, but Bea chose that moment to wake up from her second nap and demand some attention.  
“Oh, I ... I’ll get her,” he quickly said, hoping that maybe she could cheer Wade up. The Merc just nodded and mumbled something about storing his weapons in the meantime.  
Ever since they got Bea, he was extra careful, locking away everything at all times of the day. Peter hadn’t found a hidden gun or blade in months. 

Bea was sitting in her crib, bouncing around as usual and grabbing her stuffed bear as Peter lifted her up.  
“Good afternoon, little Bea. Did you have any dreams?” he asked, kissing her head and carrying her over to the changing table. She wiggled the bear around while Peter gave her a fresh diaper.  
“Papa Wade is back, you wanna go see him?” he asked and she smiled, so maybe she knew what he was talking about. Peter wasn’t all that sure about how much she understood, but he still liked to tell her everything, just so she knew.  
“He said he missed you, let’s give him lots of kisses,” he said and kissed her until she giggled and cuddled up to him. Bea was always clingy after naps, she liked to just stay with either of them for about half an hour and snuggle. 

“Look who’s here!” Peter announced happily and Wade looked over, smiling just a little under his mask. He took it off right away, because Bea always seemed unsettled by it and sometimes cried. Now she was making impatient little noises, wanting her milk already, that Peter just had to heat up.  
“Just a moment, my princess. Wanna say hi to papa first?”  
They walked over but the moment they went around the sofa, Peter stilled. Wade smiled at Bea, who reached out for him, but the look in his eyes was so utterly devastated.  
There were tears in his eyes the moment their little one cuddled up to him, and he held her close, hiding his face next to her head.  
“I missed you. I missed you,” Wade whispered and his tears left wet spots on Bea’s back. She hummed and pulled her legs in to lay on his chest.  
After a moment, Peter knelt on the sofa and hugged them both, one hand on Wade’s head and the other on the back of his neck like he’d always done when Wade wasn’t feeling well. This seemed to relax him and he sniffled, then kissed Bea’s head softly.  
“Man, I sure bring the party today, aren’t I?” he asked, giggling embarrassed when Peter got up to get Bea’s bottle.  
Wade fed her and looked at her for a long time while she suckled on the bottle.  
“What happened?” Peter softly asked after long minutes, and Wade sighed.  
“We ... found them.”  
“Who?”  
“Some of the samples. More babies.”  
“Plural?!” Peter asked louder than he wanted, and Bea looked at him. He quickly smiled at her and patted her little hand.  
“Yeah,” Wade just said and his eyes were so sad. “Five. Three little ones and two women were pregnant. We got three more women out ... there were more in there, but ...”  
Wade trailed off, but Peter could imagine how it went.  
“Where ... are the kids now?”  
“With SHIELD, but under Avengers custody. SHIELD is just contracted to provide means to house them safely and get them medical care. Nothing more. The Team even sent their own security guards. I think Stark'll get a place for them under his control soon.”  
Peter sighed, satisfied for the moment with this plan, because at least the guards weren’t covertly HYDRA.  
“We took all computers and hard drives and stuff we could find. Stark, Banner and their teams are going through it at top speed. There’s probably ... more.”  
Peter let his head sink into a nod, closing his eyes and wondering how the world had suddenly become such a place. How something like this could just go on and on and on. But they would stop it. Sooner or later, they’d find every last place and get rid of those torturers. 

Wade carefully placed Bea’s empty bottle aside and put her on one shoulder to pat her back.  
“They don’t know who the kids belong to ... well ... y’know I ain’t even allowed to tell you anything.”  
They both laughed quietly at that, because there was no way they would keep this important information from one another.  
“And the samples?”  
“Just a handful. Not nearly as many as were taken. We don’t know who it’s from yet and who it’s missing from still.”  
“Test results on the babies isn’t in yet, I guess?”  
”Nah, takes some time to go through the data. There were some old-ass samples in there, who knows for how long this has been going on.”  
Wade sounded so tired, so worn out. Peter had never hear him talk like this after a mission, but he knew what kind of toll those facilities took. He’d experienced it himself. 

 

That night, Wade didn’t object when it was Peter taking charge in the bedroom. Peter knew for a fact that Wade liked to be submissive, but the older man wasn’t one to indulge in anything just for himself, so he ended up topping mostly. Peter loved to take care of his Merc, but Wade often wouldn’t let him, maybe feeling like he didn’t deserve it.  
Tonight was different, though. Tonight, when Wade’s heavy, tired steps wandered out of the bathroom, Peter patted the bed next to him and smiled when Wade just slumped on the mattress, into his arms. They shared intense kisses and the desperate, pained gleam in Wade's eyes making it clear what he needed.  
Later, Wade obligingly rolled over onto his belly and let Peter’s fingers explore and make him feel good. The younger man gave him enough time between each step, so that Wade could stop if he wanted to.  
Only that he didn't.  
Ne never wanted this to stop, felt every touch of Peter's fingers draw all the frustration, the aches and the horrors of this mission out of him. 

 

“I missed you,” Peter whispered against Wade’s back, holding him tight, both arms slung around the older man’s chest. Wade moaned some unintelligible response, his hands clinging to the bedsheet.  
After he’d placed another soft kiss on Wade’s back, Peter began thrusting, long, deep motions just as he knew Wade liked – and needed sometimes. Peter was rewarded with a gasp and shudder from his Merc, the strong body shivering underneath him with every push of his hips.  
“I love you,” Peter said, voice strained and hoarse, but he needed Wade to know it. They didn't use a condom, mainly because Wade hated them when he was the bottom. He wanted to feel everything, and Peter readily wanted to give him everything he could. 

 

Wade moaned into the pillow, a needy sound, as he buried his face into the soft material. His breathing was ragged, and he slowly pulled one knee up towards his chest. Peter caught up after a moment and grabbed Wade’s knee, roughly pushing it up and thrusting harder, smirking against the scarred back when Wade moaned loudly, writhing under him when Peter had no doubt found his sweet spot.  
Peter clenched his teeth and decided that he couldn’t last that much longer, so he kept hitting the spot over and over again until Wade all but whined with how good it felt.  
He was so much more quiet than usual, not talking or gasping out half sentences and quips at Peter. He just took whatever the younger man gave him, Peter determined to make Wade forget just for a while what hurt him so much. Just for now, there shouldn't be anything left than the lust and the shivers running through Wade's body.  
After another broken moan, Peter reached around with both his hands, stroking over the length of Wade's back, his strong shoulders, his neck, around to his arms. Carefully, to still allow him to object, Peter closed his hands around Wade's, holding him and pushing them onto the mattress on the sides of Wade's head. 

Wade shouted wordlessly, stilling and bowing his back as he came with broken gasps. Peter wanted to make him feel it even more, knew Wade liked it, so he just thrust on, drawing out the Merc’s aftershocks until he sobbed with sensitivity. Only then Peter allowed himself to grab Wade’s hips and finally come, making him shudder again when he was filled up. 

They fell onto the bed together, out of breath and still holding onto one another tightly, not wanting their connection to end just yet. When Wade mumbled eventually that he wanted Peter to pull out, they separated and the younger man cleaned them both up gently.  
“C'mere,” Wade whispered, none of them commenting on the salty streaks of tears on Wade's cheeks. Peter shook his head with a smile and rearranged them so that Wade was further down on the bed, could rest his head on Peter's chest.  
Peter carefully cradled Wade's head in his hands, fingers stroking over the older man's neck, soothing him. 

“You wanna-”  
“No, please,” Wade whispered. “I don't … want to talk now. Let's just ...”  
He trailed off, closing his arms around Peter's naked body, hiding further from the world in his lover's arms. Peter kissed his head, quietly wishing him a good night. A bit later, they were both sound asleep, holding each other tight, closing off the world just for a while, to give them both some time to recover. 

 

In the early morning hours, Wade was the first one to wake up. It was slow, not being woken up by anything but just his body deciding it was done sleeping.  
He looked over to the night stand and checked the baby monitor. Bea just turned her head to the side, facing the camera, but she was still fast asleep, looking like a little angel. Wade smiled at her, but feeling the memories of the past days tugging heavily at him.  
His smile slowly, so very slowly, fell when everything came crushing back in on him. 

Yeah, they had found some women and babies, just how he'd told Peter.  
But _how_ they found them, was a different thing. Under what conditions. 

It had been surprisingly easy for all of them to sneak into the compound, and from there into the first two basements under it. It was crazy just how little attention the night shift there payed, they might as well have been sticking C4 to every fucking surface like a middle schooler putting gum under tables.  
They'd all looked at a map of the place – Stark had hacked a pentagon server and given it to them – but this one just ended with the third basement. When they reached it, just as expected, they were met with massive metal double doors. 

The moment they stepped within reach of the door, alarms blared, probably activated by stepping on pressure plates.  
“Shit! Wade, Logan, Wanda, you go in, we're staying behind to hack the elevator!” the Captain shouted and they all stepped back when Wanda put both hands on the doors. They swung open in a flash of red light, opening up to a long corridor.

 

Wade and Logan barrelled through the metal doors one after the other, just blowing through the whole fucking building.  
“Has to be all the way to the back,” Logan snarled, his feet thumping heavily through the empty hallways. “Can't risk everybody seeing their resources.”  
Wade just grunted in agreement, both of them knowing how it was to be someone's experiment, just a bunch of numbers on a board, a few clinical words instead of human reactions.

Another door gave way and they were finally standing inside something resembling a lab. Everything was white and metal, trays with all kinds of torture devices and scalpels of all sizes lined up between the tables. A woman was strapped to a gynaecologist chair in the middle of the room, unconscious but still with a gag in her mouth should she wake up.  
Red hot rage seared through Wade's veins and he shot two people in lab coats before he could even hear anything over the rushing in his ears.  
“At least leave one, you fucking moron!” Logan growled, quickly jumping over a table and tackling the guy nearest to the chair. They tumbled to the ground, glass broke into sparkling shards under the bright lights over the chair.  
Wade grunted, reloading his gun quickly with experienced movements.  
“Sign says he's head of experimentation!” Logan yelled and at the last word Wade had already shot two more men in blue scrubs, who had huddled in fear behind one of the tables. Nice clean headshots splattered parts of their insane brains all over the walls.  
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Wade saw a white clad figure scurry away. He fired without thinking, thankfully just in the back of the knee instead of the torso. The guy wailed in pain and flew to the ground, holding his knee and sobbing.  
With anger still clouding his eyes, Wade stepped up and turned the guy around, eyeing the tag on his labcoat for a moment.  
It read “resource management”.  
Wade let one of his guns drop and balled his hand up to a fist. It landed with an oh so satisfying sound square in this monster's face, breaking his nose. The next hit met bone again and Wade heard the socket around the eye crunch under the force. Blood splattered on the otherwise shiny clean floors, the man's body flailing around barely conscious, and Wade grinned under his mask.  
“Last one's for my little girl, you disgusting sick fuck,” he snarled, let go of the man's chest and drew one leg back. Wade kicked, not holding a bit of his strength back, hitting the scientist right in the crotch. He gargled out some pained sounds and soon sagged to the floor, having probably fainted from the pain.  
Wade hoped the kick had been hard enough to break something. He would've loved to use his katanas right there, cut everything straight off, but the Avengers wanted the leading people alive, and sadly such a procedure would mean fatal blood loss. 

Looking up from the bloody heap, Wade saw another metal door. Double, wide enough for a hospital bed to fit through.  
“You got 'em?” he asked, not looking back to the lab where Logan tied up their two hostages.  
“Yeah, the others're gonna be here in a moment, taking them to the jet. Go, I'll follow.”

Wade kicked the doors open and stood in an all too familiar hallway, white doors with those little windows that left no room for any privacy lining the walls left and right. He felt bile rise up in his stomach, his skin burned angrily, reminding him of the tortures he'd had to go through in just that kind of place.  
Clenching his jaw, Wade stomped all the way to the back of the hallway, ripping the last door out of it's hinges. Inside the room, there was a single medical bed, an obviously pregnant woman strapped to it – he could see leather shackles around her swollen ankles. She turned her head slowly, lethargic, probably expecting a doctor. Her eyes went wide when she saw Wade, her mouth opening in a silent scream.  
He thought about removing his mask, but that would just scare her more.  
“Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm here to get you out. You understand me?”  
She didn't react, so Wade wondered whether or not she could speak english while he slowly stepped closer. He removed the blanket from her body and ripped off the shackles, startling her.  
“I'll bring you home, you understand? Home? A la casa? No english? Espanol? Francais?” he tried and tried, while quickly pulling a wheelchair from the corner and gesturing to it. “I'll sit you in there, alright? No harm, no ouchie, just help. Ayudar, okay?”  
She breathed harder, and Wade feared she'd scream soon, so he just picked her up and sat her in the wheelchair with one quick movement.  
“Hold on, we're going out.”

In the hallway he met the good Captain and hurried past him.  
“Get the left side? I bet you got better people skills!” he said and saw the Captain smile wryly, but nodding. Wade saw the woman clutch her super round stomach and really hoped she wouldn't pop out a baby anytime soon. Given her overall roundness that was quite high hopes.  
**Let's not slip when her water breaks.**  
_That's be so uncool. Just try to slide on it!_  
Wade sighed under his voice's comments, not having missed them one bit. For some reason they were always so nice and quiet around Bea.  
Bea.  
Man, he missed her so much. 

He left the woman with Logan, who would be guarding an elevator – couldn't climb stairs with whomever they might find. There was a little device next to the elevator doors, which would let them remote control the elevator, keeping anybody from hindering them to leave. 

Looked like Cap wasn't all that lucky, because he came out with a woman screaming and yelling and crying in some unknown language, when Wade opened another door on the right side.  
What he saw let his blood boil and freeze at the same time, leaving him shuddering like a leaf in autumn winds. 

The room was connected to the next door on the right, making it longer than the previous. The sides were lined with cribs, overly clinical metal and glass ones. There were tubes everywhere, connecting the cribs to panels on the walls.  
Wade's heart pounded and his vision blurred, pure panic trying to take over. He was too tense to move for a moment, then a tiny hand poked from a crib and caught Wade's attention.  
“Shit.”  
Wade turned quickly, jumping out of his haze, to see the Maximoff girl standing behind him. She slowly went into the room, pale and with round eyes, looking shocked.  
“Let's … let's get them outta here,” Wade said and she nodded quickly, carefully inching to one of the cribs where the panels were blinking green numbers. There were four of them in total, so each of them would have to carry two. 

All this time the military base had been in chaos, of course, but now the gunfire and the heavy footsteps came closer, urging them to get these innocent lifes to safety.  
“There's the last one!” Wanda hissed, her eyes flicking to the door every few seconds. She was holding two babies in one arm, tight to her chest. They were both crying, but Wade was glad she looked to have a secure grip on them, so that she could use her magic or whatever it was with the other hand.  
“Got it,” Wade said, but the moment he wanted to reach for the last baby – not sure weather it was a boy or a girl, because they were all just wrapped in diapers and grey blankets – the panel blinked red numbers and a low alarm sounded from it. Wade stared at the numbers, not sure what to do. Just one of the wires was connected to the baby itself, the others at the bed, maybe measuring temperature or so.  
“Hurry!” Wanda said, biting her lip and now standing next to the door, ready to blast anyone coming in. Over the comms, they could hear the others at the jet urging them to hurry as well. Apparently, two of the women had made it to the jet already, and the doctors were tied up as well.  
“Uh …,” Wade stammered, sweat breaking out on his brow when the red numbers sunk lower and lower. He was afraid what would happen if they reached zero. He carefully tucked one hand under the blanket to touch the baby's hand, jolting with a shock when he found it ice cold. He looked closer, and in the low light of the room he thought he saw how it's lips were turning more and more blue.  
“There's something wrong, what should I-”  
“We can call-”

Before either of them could finish the sentence, the numbers had sunken to zero, the machine giving off a telltale sound. Flatlining.  
The baby had just died.  
Wade and Wanda stared at it, none of them hearing the commotion around for a moment. An explosion far off in the distance rattled them back to reality.  
“Come on,” the twin said softly, sniffing and tucking the babies closer to her chest. Wade felt as if he was suffocating, his lungs and eyes burning, his heart aching so so much.  
He had failed.  
With this little life, he had failed.  
“Wade, come on,” Wanda urged, grabbing his arm with one hand and just tugging him along. 

After a few steps, Wade forced himself to think straight, banning the deep sorrow to the furthest corner of his mind, glad nobody would see the tears streaming down his face under his mask. He was pretty good at keeping a calm voice, so it would be okay.  
“Give me one. Protect us with your magic whats-it.”  
“It's not magic, it's mutant powers,” she answered exasperated with her heavy accent, handing Wade a baby nonetheless. Wade held one to his shoulder, the other to his chest, both on one arm. He had a gun in the other hand, backing Wanda up. 

 

Somehow they made it to the jet, where the team doctor – a guy Stark had recruited just this year – had just announced the time of death for a heavily pregnant woman.  
“And the baby?” the good Captain asked, voice flat and hard. When Wade put the babies down in the seats strapped to a special rack on the wall, he saw several bleeding gashes on him, maybe from a gun or knives. The doctor sighed heavily, shaking his head.”  
“Was dead already when you brought her here. I thought I could stabilize her until I could get her to a hospital, but … well …,” he trailed off, then standing up and retrieving a body bag from one of the lockers overhead. The Captain helped him tuck the lifeless body in, Wade unable to look away.

There were some more women sitting or lying in the separate cabin next to them, some crying, some staring onto the wall blankly. Wade counted five. He'd heard over the comms that there had been a similar corridor on the opposite side, but the explosion they'd heard was triggered when they opened the main doors. Killing everyone inside.

The last one to board the already hovering jet was the Black Widow, carrying a big black box. She gasped out that it held all samples and hard drives she had found, and the Captain helped her lock it to the jet, while Hawkeye said he'd start the engines and they should hold on. 

It was dead quiet in the jet all the way home.  
Home. 

Wade stared into nothing for long minutes, then his numb hands reached into the compartment over his head, where he'd stashed his personal things. He fished out his phone, activated it and stared at the screen as a message from Peter popped up.  
_Home_  
He opened the message, still feeling like his head had been bubble wrapped. 

The photo showed Bea, smiling so happy in her little baby tub, a huge rubber ducky next to her. Wade's head bowed over the image, and he bit his lip to keep from sobbing when the pain in his heart rose to unbearable levels.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've anticipated this day, hope you like the chapter. See you all next week, until then, take care guys and enjoy <3

„You got everything?“ Wade asked two days after he came back, Bea on his hip. Peter nodded quickly, while stuffing a water bottle into his bag.  
„Yeah, all set. Gotta go,“ he huffed, in a hurry already despite it being early in the morning. Peter bowed down and kissed Bea's head, then kissed Wade.  
„Good luck!“  
„Thank you, thanks,“ Peter smiled and waved to Bea, who just lifted her hand, not yet understanding what Peter meant.  
„Bye, daddy, byeee!“ Wade said for her and waved her hand side to side. Peter laughed and dashed back from the door to kiss both of them another time, then he left quickly.  
Today he'd have to show the results of his latest paper to the faculty. The points he got for that would be his final ones before his graduation. Peter was very nervous, but he wanted to do good, thought about Bea and being able to give her a good future. 

When he arrived on campus, he immediately went to the labs and put together a trolley with some material for showing his experiments. His phone buzzed when he was just putting on his labcoat and grabbing his notes.  
Quickly, reminding himself to turn it off completely in a moment, Peter checked the message. It was Wade who'd send him a picture of Bea, holding her very own spoon in a chubby hand, oatmeal goo splattered all over her face and bib. She smiled happily, and Wade had added a caption to wish Peter good luck again.  
The young hero smiled.  
Yeah, everything would be alright.

Calmed down now, Peter turned off his phone and put it in his bag – he'd have to leave everything at the lab. A few minutes later, he entered the room, being greeted by the professors that would evaluate his presentation.  
He took a deep breath, thought of Bea's lovely smile, and began talking.

 

At the same time, Wade had prepared Bea to go out.  
They had another big shopping trip ahead of them and this time, Wade wasn't scared at all. On the contrary, he looked forward to being with his best girl all day long.  
„Let's get something super yummy. Daddy needs a good dinner after all his work today,“ he explained to Bea while he strapped her car seat onto the backseat of the car. She waved her rattling toy and waited patiently for Wade to get into the driver's seat. He could only see her over the rearview mirror, but it would have to be that way. No way he was taking her to the front, with all those videos and statistics he'd seen about child safety on the road. 

Wade thought about Peter on his way to the supermarket, hoped he was doing well and wasn't too nervous. He knew the results on his work would be great, he was a genius, so he only worried about him stumbling over his words or forgetting something on his experiment.  
„What do you think we should make for Daddy today?“ Wade asked Bea as they drove, listening to her favourite songs. By now, Wade knew all these children's songs by heart.  
He looked into the mirror and saw that Bea was too occupied playing with the rubber keys she had. They were huge and colorful, four keys on a plastic keyring, and actually rattled and jingled everytime she moved them.  
„Alright, I see you're busy. How 'bout Mac 'n Cheese? You could even have some noodles to munch on.“

 

A bit later Wade had successfully put Bea in the little seat in the shopping cart – his jacket stuffed into her back to prevent her from sliding around. 

Their first stop was of course the fresh produce section, even though Wade had a whole bag of coupons he wanted to use today. But as much as he liked fast food, especially Bea needed lots of fresh stuff now, since she slowly started on mashed food.  
“Oh, you share with me? That’s so nice,” Wade said and let Bea feed him a berry, which made her so happy she grinned at him. Wade had opened the box for her because she had gotten impatient and at that age he could hardly explain to her that they hadn’t paid yet.  
She looked so cute when she smiled, red splatter from the berries all around her mouth. Wade remembered to use the wet wipes he had in her bag before checking out, so she wouldn't get the berry juice all over the car seat.  
“Mmmh, very yummy,” Wade commented, and Bea repeated the “mmmh” after him. Later she helped him by throwing things in the cart that he handed her – all throwable things, no eggs or nothing. 

Bea continued to be awesome and even waved a hello at the employees at a sample stand. Of course she got a cookie to taste and suckled on it happily while Wade finished the shopping.  
When they reached the check out, Bea had finished her snack and Wade quickly wiped her face and fingers clean, then drying it with the sleeve of his shirt. He probably wouldn't tell Peter about the cookie.  
Wade handed Bea the envelope with their coupons, telling her to hold it.  
“You gotta help Papa out, can you do that? Hold on tight for me, please,” he said and she looked at him with big round eyes. The whole time when he put their haul on the belt, she clutched the envelope and gave it back when Wade asked her to.  
The cashier lady was so in love with her that she gave Bea a sticker with a bunny on it, that she got from under the counter. Maybe for the extra cute children, Wade thought while he pushed the cart to the car. Bea had decided that a perfect spot for the bunny was on the hem of Wade’s shirt, and she seemed very happy with that. 

 

When all their groceries – a whole trunk full – were packed, Wade treated Bea to a milkshake, while he ate a burger. Well, he actually treated her to a few spoonfulls of his own milkshake – he didn't want to giver her too much too soon.  
Maybe he wouldn’t tell Peter about it, Wade thought, but then Bea reached out for his burger and he had an idea.  
Just to tease a little, Wade held his own huge burger to Bea’s face and snapped a photo of how her round eyes just looked over the bun. He sent it to Peter, telling him they were enjoying “a little snack”.  
Funny enough Bea had actually tried to get some of the burger, but she couldn’t bite yet, so Wade just distracted her with a toy. It was surprisingly easy to divert her attention from something, Wade wondered why there were so many kids in stores screaming like crazy.  
Well, maybe it happened when they were older, Wade thought.  
“But you won’t yell at me, will you? Like, when you’re older. Nah, you’ll stay Papa’s little cutie, right?”  
In response, Bea smiled at him with her sticky milkshake face and he laughed.  
“And of course you’ll get your first boyfriend by 30, right?”  
To that, a mom that overheard him at the next table grinned knowingly, and even gave him a thumbs-up. Wade grinned, marvelling over how nice people were to him when Bea was around. She was really a miracle, making every aspect of his life better. 

 

“I'm back!” Peter called in the early afternoon, when he was stepping into the apartment and took off his shoes.  
“Welcome home!” Wade shouted back and Bea emitted a shout as well, which made Peter grin right away. It was so adorable how she began imitating them. The two of them were sitting in the living room on the carpet and Peter almost passed out from the cuteness when he saw that Wade had put a tutu on Bea.  
“Oh, look at you, pretty girl. Oh, I love you,” Peter gasped, feeling only a little embarrassed at how he sounded. He kissed Bea and held her close, smiling when she cuddled up to him.  
“How was the presentation?” Wade asked, comfortably sprawled out on the floor between toys and books. Peter smiled while kissing Bea, looking at her little hand closing around the hem of his shirt.  
“Amazing. I got full points, the best possible outcome to start into the exams.”  
“Yeah! I knew it, congrats, sweetie.”  
“Thanks.”  
Peter sat down on the floor and kissed Wade, spent some lovely minutes hugging his girl and then playing with her. Around her, all the stress of the day seemed to just float away, and Peter smiled when she showed him a stuffed bunny, uttering some noises at him, maybe telling him about the toy. 

 

They spent a nice relaxing afternoon together, even going for a walk with Bea, and met some parents they knew from swim class at the park. The babies sat in their strollers together and exchanged toys, while Peter and Wade talked to the other parents, exchanging tips about their little one's milestones. 

On their way back the two men got two big boxes of pizza to celebrate, since neither of them felt like cooking that day.  
“Don't forget about our appointment with Matt tomorrow. I'll have to meet you two there, I have to check in my end term papers with the professors, it'll take too long to go home again,” Peter reminded Wade while they were walking, the two pizza cartons stored underneath Bea's seat.  
“Will do. I'll take the car to pick my lovely husband up,” he replied and kissed Peter on the cheek.  
“Hey, you wanna check out that place for the baby music class? I thought Bea might like it.”  
“Definitely. Have a look first if it's something for her,” Wade said, which the two of them understood as check if the place was secure and clean, before they signed up for anything.  
“I'm so looking forward to signing her up for, like, baby ballet or something. Man, she'll be the cutest little ballerina.”  
Peter laughed, because of course Wade would want that.  
“And you'd make her costume for the big show, wouldn't you?”  
“Duh, damn right I would. Make her a cute sunflower or a fairy or something. She'd be the cutest little fairy, I bet.”  
“She's the cutest at everything,” Peter giggled, happy with how in love they were with the little girl. How couldn't they be, every day she was a little angel, bringing sunshine into their home. 

 

None of them talked about the mission, not for this evening, a quiet agreement between the two. Returning to their home, they found that both their phones and their landline had messages on them.  
“Can't escape for a while, huh?” Wade grumbled, because they both knew who all those messages were from. Peter sighed and picked up his phone while Wade took off Bea's jacket, hat and thick socks.  
Listening to the voice coming through his phone, Peter slowly turned and glanced at his family. Wade just kissed Bea's forehead, hugging her to his chest and carrying her over to the living room, so she could sit in her jumper and wear herself out a bit more before going to bed.  
“So, what's it? They got another lead?” Wade asked, securing a different set of toys to the jumper, so that Bea wouldn't get bored from the old ones. She was grabbing for it immediately, loving the set with the mirror on the lillypad and the frog that jumped with her.  
“No, they … they just asked us to come by tomorrow. We could bring Bea to the daycare in the Tower, but we must absolutely come by.”  
“That sounds urgent,” Wade said, getting suspicious now. He checked the message on his own phone just to make sure, but it didn't say anything more than Peter's or the one on their landline.  
“Yeah,” the younger man mumbled, not sure what to make of this. He hoped it didn't have anything to do with Bea, but his gut feeling told him otherwise.  
“Can't be that bad, or they'd, like, picked us up or something. If it can wait a day, it's nothing too crazy,” Wade said with confidence and went over to Bea, entertaining her with some toys. Peter agreed, but didn't mean it all that much.  
He tried, though, to push the bad feelings aside and concentrate on their little girl and her needs, because those would always be a first to them. 

Peter and Wade had their pizza while Bea was drinking her milk, finishing a whole bottle this time.  
“Where you puttin' all this, huh? In that little cute tummy?” Wade cooed and tickled Bea, making her squirm. She's already spit up some of her milk, so they were probably safe to play with her a bit.  
Later, they put her to bed with her usual routine, reading her a little story and singing her favourite song. She was half asleep before they even finished, sprawled out like a starfish in her sleeping bag. 

 

So Peter was out on his own the next day, working on his graduation. They had ultimately rescheduled the appointment with Matt, just because they didn't really know what to expect from the meeting at the Avengers Tower. Well, and also because aunt May didn't have time to take Bea, and they didn't want to overwhelm her with too many things and being out too long.  
As before, they left Bea on the daycare floor with Amy, in one of the most secure rooms again. 

The moment they stepped out of the elevator at the conference floor, they were greeted by Dr. Banner. The man's dark brown locks were ruffled and the lines around his eyes looked like he hadn't slept all night.  
“Hi, glad you could make it,” he greeted, shaking both their hands. He looked anxious, which only made the bad feeling in Peter's stomach worse.  
“What`s up, doc?” Wade asked with a grin, obviously still trying to maintain a good mood. Banner grimaced something of a smile, probably used to Wade's jokes by now.  
He just gestured over to the hallway and they followed the doctor for a few minutes, until they were away from the common area and he turned to them again. 

“We … we've learned certain things about Beatrice through an … interrogation. You should take a look.”  
Immediately Wade's smile fell, and he started looking very pale under his scars. He hadn't told Peter what they found in their mission, but the young hero could see pure horror in his lover's eyes that made him expect the worst.

“Shit, what did these dickbags do to her?” Wade asked, rubbing his head with one hands, not sure if he was able to hear it or not. He felt like his knees could give out under him any moment now.  
“That's … a rather delicate matter, so … I would like to talk to you two in private,” the doctor said, looking pale. Good thing he knew Wade wouldn't go anywhere with him alone.  
“Sure, let's go,” he agreed and Peter followed the two of them. In the hallway, he quickly checked his phone to look at the live feed from the kindergarten area. Nothing out of the ordinary, Bea was happily playing with Amy, stacking big wooden building blocks and pushing them over again.

They were brought into a small conference room, clearly not used for the Avengers, but for visitors from outside – the Team had always so many members on the operations needing briefings, that this room simply would have been stuffed. 

“Take a seat,” Dr. Banner said quietly and typed a code into a panel next to the wall. It slid aside, showing a monitor and a small keyboard with blue glowing buttons. Peter marvelled again at the technology here, and the scientist side of him drooled at the possibility of working in this building. 

A video showing on the screen now distracted Peter from his thoughts, he gasped quietly. The footage showed four guys strapped onto chairs, clearly in different rooms. There was a date and time under each chair, indicating a record from CCTV.  
“We could retrieve those four workers, but only the lead scientist spoke to us … eventually,” he said and smirked when Wade grinned. Yeah, those pigs deserved every minute of torture, that was clear even to Peter. He wasn't the least bit sorry for them hurting.  
In comparison to how much his family had hurt, still did.  
“What'd he say?” Peter pressed, both hands on the table and his fingers working around each other nervously.  
Wade reached out and placed his hand on both of Peter's, untangling them. Banner cleared his throat.  
“It seems that she has … a certain connection … to your past, Wade.”  
“What?” Wade breathed, feeling light headed and nauseous. He let go of Peter's hands, touching his own stomach and fearing he might throw up.  
“Let me show you what exactly he said, so there's no misunderstandings,” the doctor mentioned and hit the play button on the video.  
On screen, the scientist coughed out some blood, but flinched when his interrogator pulled his hand back again.  
“Wait, I'll tell you everything! Just stop! Please!”  
His voice sounded muffled, one side of his jaw was badly bruised and swollen, and there were some teeth missing.  
“Then talk!” the other man bellowed.

“We … we could steal a few samples from an old storage unit. It once belonged to someone named Killebrew.”  
The name alone had cold sweat break out on Wade's body and he balled his hands into fists, felt like he needed to throw up. This was the man who turned him into a freak, who hurt him so much he wished for years he'd die from it. Who promised to heal him, take away all the pain from the cancer, only to use him for his sick experiments and inflict more and more pain on Wade.  
And now his twisted, disgusting legacy had somehow reached something as pure and innocent as Bea.  
Peter sat next to him, both hands now clutched and pressed in front of his mouth, because he knew more about this story than anybody else.  
“There wasn't much to take, most of it was so altered, but we found out that most of it was prime DNA material – skin, hair, stem cells from bone marrow. We thought … since the results had been so extraordinary – flawed, but extraordinary – we should start with … Deadpool.”

“Oh god, no,” Wade moaned, feeling pain in every cell of his body. His fingers were ice cold and he felt tears prickling in his eyes when the man on screen continued.  
“So what did you do with Deadpool's DNA?”  
The man gulped heavily and asked in a weak voice for some water, but was threatened with more hits so he hastily continued speaking.  
“We only took what Killbrew had from him pre-weapon X.”  
“Which was?” the interrogator prompted impatiently.  
“His … uh, his sperm. Killbrew collected all sorts of fluids from him, but we could only use that. All other samples were compromised over time and residual radiation of the equipment stored with it.”  
Wade's head thunked onto the tabletop and Peter leaned back against the backrest of the chair.  
The scientist took a deep breath and had probably decided to spill all his dirty secrets. 

“We experimented with the cells, wanted to create a clone with the same healing factor but with better health. After all, we did know which treatments worked on creating the healing properties and the newest breakthroughs in cancer treatment showed us which parts of the DNA to extract.  
It didn't go too well. We lost a lot of samples, only three of them took on their hosts.” It was pretty clear to everyone listening that with hosts he meant women. “We lost two of them shortly after birth, there was just too much wrong with them. Well, but one took.”  
“The girl.”  
“The girl,” the scientist agreed and smirked. “She was our greatest success, became something her 'father' never was. She seemed healthy, strong, and promised of having the same healing properties as Deadpool.”

Wade thought about the baby he'd seen dying in one of the labs.  
_Two more..._  
Tears dropped onto the surface of the table while Wade hid his face behind his arms. They mixed into a tiny puddle and all that Wade wanted to do was scream.  
Dr. Banner closed the feed and let the silence hang in the room for a while, no doubt to give them all a breather.  
“We immediately ran tests on her blood samples we got in storage. Beatrice is absolutely healthy, shows no sign of cell mutation that would lead to cancer,” he said softly, and pushed a box of tissues over the table without comment.  
“She will most likely never have to suffer, her system will take care of that. Experimentally-”  
God, Wade hated that word. “- we infected some of her blood with the most common viruses – measles, scarlet fever, even whooping cough and chicken pocks. Nothing took. Not for a day. Her DNA shows no sign for heightened cancer risks or abnormalities other than her own, small healing factor. She is going to be healthy.”  
Wade nodded and snatched a tissue from the box to wipe his nose and cheeks before he dared to look up. Still, his gaze was fixed to the table.  
“I want this guy dead. Him and everyone we can find.”  
Peter, staring mutely at the screen to this monster that called himself a scientist, nodded.  
“Kill them all.”  
“You both know we can't. But we can have them imprisoned for the rest of their life.”  
Wade scoffed, another tear running down his cheek that he quickly wiped away.  
“Put them somewhere where they get raped every single day. Beaten. Threatened. Put on drugs. Abused. Hurt. Tortured. Just what they did with us.”  
Peter sniffed and took a tissue, his hand trembling as he wiped under his eyes and nose quickly.  
Dr. Banner nodded and seemed a bit greenish around the eyes. Peter could only imagine what it must have been like to sit in some comm room, witnessing the missions that took place miles away and revealed only horrors.  
“I … I will leave you alone for now, alright? Just take some time, I know it's a lot to handle. If you wish, you can call for Dr. Dearing to speak to you as well.”  
With that, Banner pushed another button and a panel on the table slid aside, showing an intercom unit.  
Peter nodded mutely, not knowing is he was even still breathing. 

Dr. Banner went silently, Peter thanking him for all his work – it must've taken him all night to find out if Bea was healthy or not, and just because he knew how Wade and Peter would worry. 

 

Left to their own thoughts, the two men stayed silent for long minutes, dabbing away tears every now and again. When Wade sighed deeply, feeling so very tired and beaten, Peter turned to him.  
“Wade, it's okay, we found her. Before anyone could do something to her. We found her, she's safe,” Peter said and suddenly Wade looked up at him. He looked directly into those beautiful eyes he wouldn't tire looking into for the rest of his life.  
He loved this man, would love him forever.  
And now he felt this bone deep gratitude.  
“Petey, you saved her. You … she's … she's my _daughter_ , Petey, and you saved her life.”  
Wade saw tears well up in the younger man's eyes, his own vision having gone blurry long ago. “Thank you,” he croaked out and they practically fell into each other's arms, tears falling and breaths growing more and more ragged.

“It's just like you said, she's ours now. She's _our_ daughter,” Peter said softly after a few minutes, voice still thick with tears. Wade nodded and was so incredibly thankful that things had turned out this way.  
It could all have been so much worse. When he thought about the _two_ other children that had to die because of those people. Had to suffer, no doubt. Wade felt a dark, painful hole form in his chest.  
But for the second time in his life – the first time had been Peter – fate had taken pity with Wade and not been a total bitch, granting him to have this beautiful girl in his life.  
Their daughter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit there were quite a few tears while writing this <3


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally back from all da work to upload for you sweeties ;) Hope you all had/have a great day, here's some feels just for you!  
> Enjoy <3

It took them quite some time to calm down, but eventually they were able to leave the room and it's heavy atmosphere, the doctor's words still seeming to cloud the air in there.  
They didn’t really want to see anybody else, so they just scurried past the receptionist and into the elevator. 

Wade's breathing got ragged again in the little cabin, and as soon as the doors closed he hid his face in his hands again. Peter, trying to be strong for him, bit down on his own tears and gently pulled his lover into his arms, holding him until they'd reached the kindergarten area.   
“I … I can't, Petey … I,” he stammered between sobs, shaking all over.   
“You wanna go to the car? Take a moment?”  
The offer was soft, gentle, Peter didn't want Wade to think he wasn't able to take care of Bea at the moment. Of _his_ daughter. The thought alone brought new tears to Peter's eyes that he quickly blinked away.   
“Yeah, I think … yeah.”  
He nodded and Peter placed a kiss on his husband's cheek, then pushed the button for the parking garage before stepping out of the elevator.   
“We'll meet you there, take your time,” he said, smiling with what he hoped was reassurance, but he didn't quite know if he'd managed. 

The doors closed and Peter was left alone in the colorful, happy place that now seemed to hurt him so, so much. Wade had a daughter.   
A real daughter, his flesh and blood.   
So that was why she sometimes looked like him so much.   
Peter'd noticed it before, her eyes and nose, something about the way she smiled. The thought made him smile in return, even through the tears. 

“Look, Bea, Daddy's back!” Alice said and Bea turned her head, dropping the block she held. She uttered a sound, maybe calling Peter over, maybe welcoming him, he didn't know. And he didn't really care.   
Just this simple sound brought new tears to his eyes and he went over to hug his girl close to his chest, so happy that he somehow managed to save this little life, this beautiful little girl, that had now an all new meaning to their lifes. 

“Mr. Parker? Are you okay?” Alice asked, a gentle hand on Peter's shoulder. He was glad to have her, to have such a caring person for their little girl.   
“Yeah, I'm fine, it's … it's just some news, uh … but good news,” Peter answered and soon found himself truly smiling, because he meant that. It was good news. Not the way Bea came to be, of course, but that she would be healthy, and that she was Wade's.  
Now, the Merc finally had the family he's always wanted. Peter knew he's always wished for that, but Wade wasn't someone who pressed for the things he wanted.  
This realization made all new tears drip down Peter's cheeks, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever stop crying again. Bea looked at him, then reached up and touched his wet cheeks. 

Peter managed to calm down a bit in the elevator, rocking Bea on his arm, kissing her and humming a song she liked. Bea happily cuddled up to him, she always loved being held like that.   
They met up again in the parking lot, where Wade had used some of the tissues stored in a container in the trunk to wipe away his tears. His eyes were red and swollen, he sniffled and assured Peter that he could drive, but he wouldn't even look at Bea. When she greeted Wade with a little mumbling noise, new tears flooded his eyes.   
“No, honey, I'll drive,” Peter insisted gently, taking the keys out of Wade's hands and gesturing to the backseat for him to sit down. After a moment he trudged around the car and opened the door, let himself fall into the backseat heavily. He stared straight ahead while Peter strapped Bea into her seat, checking again if the seat was buckled in as well.   
“Alright, we're good to go. Seatbelt.” Peter reminded Wade, who was shaken out of his thoughts and nodded. A click sounded as Peter got into the driver's seat, looking behind him to check on both of his loved ones.   
He didn't say anything, adjusted the rearview mirror and started the car. 

As soon as they were out of the building he heard Wade cry again and saw that his head was bowed over Bea's seat, he was holding the little girl's hand. Peter had to blink away tears, let them run freely over his cheeks because he wanted to keep both hands on the wheel.

Wade carried Bea in her seat up to the apartment, set her down on the living room table and then turned around, a dazed look in his eyes.   
“I … I'm sorry … I gotta lay down or somethin',” Wade mumbled, swaying on his feet to the bedroom. Peter just nodded, telling him to shout for him should he need anything.   
All this talking about the experiments and Killebrew must've exhausted him, stirred up memories he'd rather left untouched. Peter was glad to see Wade leaving the bedroom door ajar. 

For the rest of the day Peter was pretty much alone with Bea, but he didn't mind. He read to her and fed her a bottle, then brought her to her room for a nap. While she slept, he brought Wade a glass of water, pulling a blanket over his now asleep husband.   
He looked so worn out, eyes still swollen from all the shed tears. Peter also brought him one of the gel masks from the fridge and very carefully placed them onto Wade's head. The Merc just sighed in his sleep, his shoulders relaxed a little, showing Peter that he'd done something good. 

Peter was tired as well, slowly moving about the apartment, cleaning up a bit and organizing Bea's play area for the evening. He even started on dinner, a hearty soup with vegetables and meat, together with some home made garlic bread that aunt May gave them.  
Maybe lured out by the smell of herbs and broth, Wade emerged from the bedroom. He looked tired still, but a small smile played around the corner of his lips as he came around the cooking island.  
“Hi,” he just said and hugged Peter close, just holding him for a few long minutes.   
“Hi,” Peter eventually replied, voice gentle and loving.   
“Thanks for the mask and the water.”  
“You're very welcome, honey. Do you need anything?”  
“No, I'm … I'm okay.”  
Peter nodded, leaning back a little to look into Wade's eyes. Carefully, Peter ran his palm over the side of Wade's head, resting it on the older man's cheek. He leaned into it, smiling a bit wider.   
“Thanks,” Wade whispered, meaning not just the care of this day. Peter just nodded, having to cast down his eyes for a moment.   
They kissed, sweet, without rush. 

When Bea woke up, they had dinner with her, then played with her until it was her bedtime. Just like every night, Peter and Wade took time for her night time ritual, reading her a story and singing her favourite song.   
Peter turned on the toy that looked like an aquarium, with little plastic fish swooping by from side to side. It cast shimmery blue and green lights across the room, so Bea wasn't all in the dark.   
“Goodnight, little princess,” Peter said and gave a bunnies dancing over her crib a little push, so they swayed just a bit. Bea looked at them and yawned.

Peter went over to clean up the changing table real quick, and take the empty box for wet wipes out to replace it with a full one from under the table. When he turned around, he saw Wade kneeling in front of the crib.   
Shoulders hunched, head hung low. One hand clutching the bars around the crib.   
“Wade,” he whispered and went over, carefully placing a hand on the Merc's shoulder. Tears burned in Peter's eyes when he heard Wade gasp in some air.   
“I never thought …,” he started, whispering and choking down sobs so that he wasn't too loud. “I never thought I could even have children … all those samples, they … they said nothing worked anymore after weapon X. Like … one of the procedures turned me sterile.”  
Peter let his own head hang down under the weight of Wade's words.  
“All the experiments. All the pain. And now here she is, here's Bea, so … so _perfect_. How in the fucking world could she be so perfect?”  
A pained smile stretched over Peter's lips.   
“Because she's yours,” he whispered and heard Wade sniff.   
“Out of all this … this huge mess … she's so perfect, Petey. So perfect.”

Peter sunk to his knees and hugged Wade, saw the outline of Bea's body in the crib. She was breathing deeply, exhausted from the long day. Tomorrow she'd learn even more than today, she's see new things just like every day. She'd be healthy and happy.   
“We will protect her,” Peter promised and Wade nodded, tears glittering in the dim light of Bea's toy when they fell down on Wade's knees.   
“I never thought I would have children. I never thought I could have any of the things we have now. And everything's so perfect now. I just can't believe it.”  
Peter smiled and reached around Wade's shoulders to give him a tissue. The older man laughed, his voice grating due to the tears, and wiped his face.   
“It's alright to feel overwhelmed, you know.”  
“I know.”  
“But you deserve a happy future. And Bea does. For all you've gone through.”  
Wade was silent for a moment, sniffling quietly.   
“You deserve it, too. You know.”  
Peter laughed quietly, tears dripping onto Wade's shoulder as they hugged for long minutes in Bea's room, while their little girl slept peacefully.

 

The very next morning, a massive envelope was in their mail, filled with stacks of documents. Halfway through, Peter had called up Matt and went through the main paragraphs with him. Of course their lawyer knew about the documents already and had spoken to Stark about it. Apparently the Avengers leader had insisted on the documents being changed this quickly. 

It was a new birth certificate for Bea, where Wade was mentioned as the biological father and where her mother was marked as deceased. And a new adoption document just for Peter.   
_”You'll have to send in a copy of your marriage papers,”_ Matt informed him and Peter hummed in agreement, scribbling a note on his notepad nearby.   
“Anything else? Does this change anything with Bea? Like, I still have full custody, even with Wade's, right?”  
 _”Of course. You'll basically have the same rights as Wade. I think Stark just wanted to have everything fixed, just in case someone could try to revoke the adoption SHIELD issued with you.”_  
Peter frowned at that, hoping that they wouldn't have so much to do with SHIELD anymore. But with Stark now on their side, it didn't seem like it.   
“Hey, while we're talking, could you give us some tips on what to do in terms of securing Bea's future? I don't want to sound too grim, but I think we should talk about who's gonna take care of her if we … well, if something happens,” he said and watched the door, but Wade still wasn't up.   
_”Sure, yeah. You should also set up your will and maybe some kind of financial security for Bea. Let's make an appointment for that, we can get the best options looked at.”_  
Peter happily agreed and managed to fit another little note into their busy schedule. Of course their doctor's appointments would continue, and so would swim class. Peter was already looking into a music class for Bea, and some playdates in local gyms or parks. 

A bit later, just when Peter'd ended the call, Wade came into the room, barefoot and cradling a sleepy Bea in his arms. His eyes still looked very sad, but there was a smile on his face.   
“Look the little princess just woke up,” Wade said, happily cuddling Bea against his chest. She babbled something and curled up into a ball, pulling in her legs and leaning his head against Wade's chest.   
“Aw, good morning, my love,” Peter replied and kissed both of them, because he had meant both of them. Wade grinned and leaned in for another kiss right away. 

“Sit, you two, I'll prepare breakfast,” he said and pointed vaguely at the highchair next to their dining table. Bea could sit in it already, but only when they strapped a pillow in behind her.   
“There you go, all comfy, yay,” Wade cooed, kissing Bea until she squeeked. She noisily patted the little table in front of the seat, wiggling her legs and generally being in a good mood.   
“Should we try some oatmeal? I think we could,” Peter said excitedly, holding up the packet of baby oatmeal. There were at least twenty more in the cupboard, from one of Wade's beloved couponing trips. The Merc had planned to stock up aunt May's house for at least the rest of the year. Given it was only January, that was quite the courageous plan.   
“Sure, let's try! Yay, real people food for Bea!” Wade said and the little girl looked at him. They looked at each other while Peter poured the mixture and stirred.  
“You know …,” Wade began, quieter now, drawing Peter's attention. Whenever Wade was that quiet, he was about to talk about something important. The Merc's elbows were on the table and he placed his chin on top of his hands, watching Bea carefully. “I mean, I could just imagine … but … maybe … like, does she look like me? … Like, maybe her nose?”  
“She does,” Peter agreed right away, laughing softly when Wade's head whipped around to him.   
“I noticed that a few times, actually. But I thought that it was just my mind playing tricks, you know, 'cause I like you two pretty much.”  
Wade smiled broadly and looked back at Bea, then pulled his chair closer to hers. His eyes were sparkling and even from his place in the kitchen Peter could see how happy the older man was. Peter was sure, soon the pain still lingering in Wade's features would vanish.   
“Yeah, right? Like, her nose looks like mine a bit.”  
“And her eyes,” Peter supplied and stirred the oatmeal again. It smelled slightly sweet and was very creamy, so Bea wouldn't choke on any bits.

A bit later, they all sat around the table and Wade took a photo of Bea with her little bowl of oatmeal and a pink plastic spoon next to it.   
“The big moment. Come on, Bea, let's dig in,” he said and hit the record button on his phone to take a video. Peter was sure aunt May would have it on her phone the second they were done filming.   
Peter carefully scooped a little bit of oatmeal up and move it towards Bea.   
“Say 'aah', open wide. Look, 'aaah',” Peter said, opening his own mouth in hopes of Bea copying him. She did, watching the spoon as it came near. She closed her mouth around it and suckled, then pulled a very very confused face.   
Peter and Wade quietly laughed because that particular expression was new and very funny. Bea smacked her lips around the foreign food and some just came right out, but Peter did see her swallow some of it.  
“Yay, first real food!”   
Peter laughed and they both clapped for Bea, letting her know that she did good. She seemed happy about it and took another spoonful. Most of her first meal landed on her bib, her face or the table, mainly because she didn't really know what to do with it. She still made the suckling motions for her bottle, which really didn't work on the spoon.   
After she kind of finished her portion, Peter cleaned up and gave her a bit of time to calm down before giving her a bottle of milk. 

Peter and Wade took the weekend off, Peter didn't even bother about his assignments. They spent a lot of quality time with Bea, taking her to swim class on Friday, to a play date on Saturday and to aunt May's on Sunday.   
The sun was out the whole day and they sat in the yard in the afternoon, enjoying the first warm breeze of the year, still in coats, but happy nonetheless. Wade was in such a good mood he busted out the barbecue grill and prepared a nice dinner for them. 

 

On Monday morning Wade wished Peter a nice day and kissed him, watched him kiss Bea and then he was alone with his little girl.   
His.   
It still felt so weird, so unreal to think about her this way, but it was true. Wade smiled down at her and promised her a great day ahead. Now more than ever, he wanted to try.   
Be good, be responsible, a role model. For his daughter. 

 

Sometime after lunch they both were tired, Bea a little grumpy because her naptime was so close.   
“C'mon, let's cuddle,” Wade said and went into the bedroom instead of Bea's room.   
Still holding her, they went to the bed and got comfortable. Bea mumbled something, pulled her thumb into her mouth and closed her eyes the moment they'd laid down. 

Wade smiled, feeling himself relax right away, all the aches in his body not important anymore. It usually was like this whenever he was with Bea, but today it was especially good. Maybe because he knew now, Wade thought, and kissed his sleepy girl's forehead. 

Soon they'd both fallen asleep, one of Wade's arms curled protectively around Bea's body, the other around her tiny hand that was on his collarbone. 

Wade found himself dreaming, which was a bit unusual. Normally he didn't dream per se, it was just a huge mess of scenes, voices, pictures, everything swirling around in his confused brain. But this time, it was a lot calmer, he actually saw himself in their bedroom, getting up from the bed. Wade looked around, briefly wondering where Bea and Peter were, but something made him go to the bathroom. He pushed the door open and closed it with the lightest click behind himself.   
On bare feet he padded over to the sink, the tiles were cold against his skin, and he could feel how smooth they were. Weird, Wade thought, but couldn't look down.   
When he reached the sink, he looked straight at his reflection in the mirror. But that wasn't him. Not anymore.   
Wade saw himself how he'd had been – before the cancer. His eyes were wide and bright blue, his hair groomed and styled just a bit, blond strands sticking up in perfect disarray. He even had eyebrows and lashes. And his _skin_. Flawless, radiant.  
Wade gaped at himself, and watched as his eyebrows drew together in confusion.   
No, this wasn't him how he had been.   
This was him, how he would look now, a bit older, more mature. 

Wade jerked awake, breathing harshly and staring down at Bea bewildered. She was still sleeping, her cheek smushed a bit on Wade's chest. He carefully cradled her body in his arms again, feeling her warmth.   
He didn't sleep for the rest of her nap, just held her and wondered what the hell this had just been.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Better late than never, and technically it's still Thursday over here ;) After being stuck in customer-support-hell, I got my internet to work again after two days! But at least I can make the waiting up to you with a longer chap today (and some hot stuff :P), so read on and enjoy <3

Wade ended up not telling Peter of his dream, because he didn't even know what to make of that, himself. And he didn't want to think of it as much – even though he felt better with his family around, the memories of how he'd once been still hurt. 

 

In the afternoon, just when Peter had arrived home from uni, Wade had Bea ready to go out.   
“We gotta get going, babe!” Wade called over, heard the frantic tapping of Peter's fingers on the keyboard.   
“Almost done. Almost,” came his lover's mumbling voice from the office space, hectically clicking with the mouse a few times. “Done!”  
Within a second he was around the corner and Wade stopped him just to kiss him. Peter sighed, giggled close to Wade's lips and the Merc watched happily as his shoulders relaxed.   
“I need to calm down, huh?”  
“Yeah, you do. Chillax 'n stuff.”  
“Chillax,” Peter repeated, grinning and kissing Wade again. The younger man hummed when Wade tipped his head back a little, hand on the nape of his neck, to deepen the kiss. Wade's tongue ran over Peter's bottom lip and Peter opened his mouth willingly, inviting him in.   
“I’m just pretty nervous about any data getting lost, y’know how it is,” he mumbled with a sigh and looked up for another kiss, which Wade gave him just as readily.   
“I know, sweetie, but don’t stress yourself. Well, not over work, but maybe over getting to the Tower in time,” Wade chuckled and Peter huffed out a laugh, then hurried to get his shoes and jacket.   
Bea was already waiting in her car seat, rattling with a toy in her hands. Peter couldn’t help but grin when he saw that the little one wore a shirt with “Daddy’s girl” printed on it. Perfect since the description fit with both Wade and Peter. 

 

Tonight they were called up into the Avngers’ Tower again for the last – official – briefing on the latest mission against the facilities. They were running only a tiny bit late – pretty good actually for going out with a baby.  
Wade had fed Bea a bottle of milk just in time before leaving, and with her stomach nice and full and the car gently shaking her seat, she was out like a light about halfway to the Tower. Since the kindergarten area was already closed off for the day, Peter and Wade decided to just bring Bea with them, since not even the trip through the Tower to the meeting room woke her up.   
There was another small room next to theirs, so Peter left the door open and put Bea down on the desk. She was sleeping soundly, not even bothered when some of the Team members peeked into the doorway to take a look at her.   
They were complimented on how beautiful and how sweet Bea was, until the two Avengers’ leaders, Captain America and Iron Man, rounded them all up at the table.

“Let’s just keep this as short as possible,” the Captain began, a stern look on his face, no doubt still up to his elbows in everything that unraveled after their last mission. “First or all, we want to thank all of you for the great work on the last mission. All rescued hostages are in medical care and doing relatively well, if only recovering slowly.”  
“And now let’s get to business, round up the last mission,” Tony Stark said, lacking just a bit of his usual chirpy self. There were hard lines around his eyes and mouth, expression showing that he was absolutely furious with what they unconvered.   
“We could rescue all in all eight hostages and capture four of the facility staff. None of them said a word, one managed to kill himself first thing during interrogation with cyanide. Luckily all our rescued are improving in health, housing and future treatments will of course be provided by Start Industries, but I think we can bear to spare them from interrogations for another while.”  
He paused a moment, tapping on his tablet while a monitor appeared in the wall behind him.   
“I’ll just let the whole footage play to get all of us to know the full story, then we can talk. Jarvis, lights.”  
Instantly, the lights in the room dimmed, just the tablet computers in front of each of them stayed illuminated, allowing them to take some notes or write down questions for later. 

They all saw some bodycam footage from the invasion on the facility, how the Team split up and tried to salvage all kinds of data and samples. And how Logan, Wade and Wanda found the women and babies that were the test subjects.   
A heavy silence fell over the room when one of the babies died, and Peter felt like he was choking. He immediately looked to the adjoining room, but Bea was still sleeping soundly, not at all bothered by the talking in the other room. 

They saw how the Team boarded the jet and then the video cut to the four captured doctors being interrogated. 

 

They saw the piece about Wade being Bea’s father again, but Stark had cut out some pieces. The others just got to know that Wade’s pre-weapon X samples were used and that he was Bea’s biological father. Nothing about the other children or details on the procedures.  
Hidden gasps sounded, but nobody dared to say a word.   
Wade kept his head tipped down, staring at the table in front of him, holding tight onto Peter’s hand.   
On screen, the video now went on, showing the second half of the interrogation.   
“And why did you get other samples?” the interrogator asked sternly, leaning onto the door now. The scientist sighed heavily, maybe in pain judging by all the blood running out of his obviously broken nose.   
“We just started out with Deadpool’s DNA. With him, we knew how to start because he’d been experimented on so much. The idea was ours, but we needed the most promising candidates and samples first. So after that ... we started picking out more samples, focusing only on mutants and so called gifted people.”  
“Why?”  
“Well, what’s the point of taking regular humans? Would just bring regular babies that we’d then have to alter. No, we wanted powerful individuals right from birth.”  
“So who’s DNA did you take? I want names!”  
The man scoffed, spitting out blood onto the floor.   
“There’s too many. I didn’t care for them anyways.”  
“How long did this go on?”  
Silence.   
Long minutes stretched on until he scientist showed and evil smirk, mouth filled with blood.   
“Seven years.”

The conference room filled with moans, gasps, groans. Horrified expressions while the truth sunk in. 

The interrogator on screen rubbed his eyes tiredly and the scientist laughed quietly.   
“What about the military compound? How’d you get in there?”  
“We’ve always been there,” he answered with a suave smirk, as if he’d every right to boast with his successes. “We were there for years, experimenting for SHIELD and the US government, analysing foreign viruses, gauging their effects on the population, their danger.”  
“You’ve been HYDRA all along.”  
“Of course. Top spot to get HYDRA’s hands on some nice little biological weapons. And somewhere along the way, we thought of creating our own mutant army. Raising them.”  
“Torturing them,” the interrogator finished darkly, but the scientist just showed his teeth in an evil grin.   
“Ah, that’s an overused word these days. Everything’s torture now. It’s not that bad, really.”  
“How did you stay hidden when HYDRA went down?”, the interrogator interrupted, obviously having had enough of the scientist’s antics.   
“We just kept our mouths shut. Cut all ties to the big guys, hired some of the others that we still needed under fake names. All went pretty smoothly. I guess als partially because the US government is beautifully oblivious to everything when they get something out of it. And they did get some nice recipies for biological warfare out of it. Was apparently enough to keep us working.”  
“Until we found you.”  
“Ah, well,” the man smiled again, almost softly. “It’s way too late now anyways. We’ve got more than enough successfull experiments and are still going strong. No matter how many of us you’ll find ... cut of one head, two more shall take it’s place.”  
That earned him another srong hit to the face, leaving him groaning and spitting more blood.   
“Tell me about the samples. Everything you know about them, every name.”  
“We do have the Captain’s, if that’s what you’re asking. And many more. You’ll never get them back.”  
The video cut there again and the screen now showed several documents – some data on the experiments, some on the samples, some on the procedures that were done. One that spoke of investigations being set up against the government staff of the base. It was most likely shut down after that. 

“We got two more bases out of the data, we’ll raid them next month. Can we count on you?” the Captain asked, showing the locations – both within the US. Nods and affirmations followed. Even Wade nodded, only Peter kept quiet, knowing that he wouldn’t be up for it. Not after what he’d seen Wade see and do.   
That’d be too much for him, after all he’d already been through when getting Bea. 

The meeting went on for a little while after that, the strategies staying mostly the same – get as much information and as many hostages out as possible, think and act quick.   
“We’ll tell you about date and time in advance, of course, seeing the most recent missions, please feel free to decline. No repercussions, no questions asked,” the Captain said business like and flipped the cover over his tablet.   
“What happens to the babies?” Peter asked, realizing he hadn’t said anything throughout the whole meeting. It was now Stark’s turn to speak.   
“We’ll set up a place for them, kind of an orphanage. Where they’ll stay until we find families for them, or maybe until their biological parents want to have them.”  
“Okay.”  
“How far along are you with the testing?” Wade asked, voice quiet and still avoiding to look up, probably not wanting to meet the other’s gazes.   
“Not very far. The women we got out are too traumatized and too weak to talk to us, so we just won’t bother pressing for DNA checks just yet. Enough time when their babies are born. For the three others, we haven’t found any matches yet, as the guy said, they’ve been at it for a while. Might be very old samples they’d used. We prepared a mail that we’ll send out to all mutant schools and organizations over the US, informing them of the incident. We’ll have them ask their people if any of them was ever attacked in that way and then have them send us a DNA sample.”  
“Good plan,” Wade commented, looking over at Bea for a moment. She would wake up in a while if she stayed on schedule, so Peter and Wade were anxious to get the meeting over with.   
Someone would need a fresh diaper and some milk soon and they’d rather not do that at a conference table. 

Just ten minutes later they parted ways again, Wade and Peter eager to get out of the building before Bea woke up. They were just packed and ready when the little one uttered a whine, letting everyone know just how mean the world was for waking her up.   
“Whoa there, little lady, just a moment, then you’ll get a fresh diaper.”, Wade mumbled and began rocking the car seat gently, but it didn’t seem to help.   
“I don’t think she can wait, with that smell,” Peter commented with a sigh, looking around the now almost deserted office areas. Only the R&D departments worked through the night, but those were several levels down.   
“I betcha the men’s toilets here don’t have a changing table, just as usual,” Wade muttered, as always angered by these things.   
“We can change her in the car, it’ll be alright,” Peter replied, opening the diaper bag already to have everything in easy reach.   
“Nah, you know what, fuck those people and their thinking that I don’t need to change my daughter’s diaper for some reason!” Wade exclaimed and steered towards the women’s bathroom. And sure enough he simply used the changing table there while Peter smirked.   
”I guess if I took a photo now, of you in the women’s bathroom changing Bea, it’d go viral,” he commented and Wade furrowed his brow.   
“Why?” he asked and removed the dirty diaper, holding a hand out. Peter gave him some wet wipes and then a fresh diaper.   
“Nevermind. You’re doing a great job, that’s what I meant to say,” Peter said sweetly, leaning against the doorframe and smiling. Wade grinned and buttoned up Bea’s onesie again.  
“Well, yeah, I do my best ...”  
When he went quiet again and his smile slowly fell, Peter pushed himself off the doorframe, wanting to say something but also wanting to give Wade time to speak up whenever he felt like it.   
“I ... sometimes, I think ... well, I mean, I really only think that now that I know that she’s ... you know, I look at her and ...”  
“And?” Peter prompted softly, hoping that his voice could help Wade organize his thoughts a bit. The older man lifted Bea up into his arms, kissing her lovingly and then strapping her into her seat again. When he spoke again, his voice was barely more than a whisper.   
“I’m afraid that no matter how hard I try, I’m not good enough for her.”

“Wade, no,” Peter breathed, smiling just a little because of course he knew where Wade came from. Peter might not have been Bea’s biological father, but he did love her and wanted all the best for her. “You’re absolutely perfect for her. As long as you try.”  
Wade looked down, a faint blush showing underneath his scars.   
“Mh,” he just uttered, not an agreement, but not an objection either.   
“I mean it. You’re ... you’re the most perfect father for her,” Peter added, voice soft and gentle. Wade’s head snapped to the side and he scrunched up his nose, no doubt because of tears burning in his eyes. A scarred hand shot up and rubbed over his eyes frantically for a moment, then he sniffed. When he looked back to Peter, he was smiling, but the sad look in his eyes wasn’t all gone.   
Would probably not be gone for a long time. But with every single one of Bea’s smiles, it would vanish a little more, Peter knew.   
“Anyways, enough with my sappiness, let’s get outta here. Little one’s gonna need her milk soon,” he said and went into the corridor again, clearing his throat. 

 

The moment they were down at the car, Bea began getting cranky, letting them know it was time for her milk.   
“Hey, wait ...,” Wade said, keys to the car already in hand. “How ‘bout we go out for dinner? Haven’t had much chance, lately.”  
“Sounds great,” Peter agreed right away, happy to be out and about with his family even just for a dinner. There was so much work coming at him the next few weeks that he felt like wanting to soak up any minute of quality time like a sponge. 

They left the car in the underground garage and walked a block into a nice little restaurant, a friendly looking place with a great view of a shopping area out the window. Which was exactly what Peter distracted Bea with while he shook her bottle with milk and asked a waiter right away to heat it up for them. They ordered their drinks at the same time and a few moments later Bea could have her milk and Peter and Wade had time to look at the menu.   
“Man, I can't wait until she can eat all the good stuff, look at that 'mac and cheese grilled cheese sandwich' … that's straight from heaven.”  
Peter grinned and tilted the bottle a bit more so Bea wouldn't gulp down any air. She was happily suckling away in his arm, staring at him the whole time.   
“If she finishes her vegetables before that,” he mentioned, grinning widely when Wade looked up at him with a frown.  
“Gonna make me eat that stuff, too, wontcha?” They both smiled at each other, knowing full well that Wade would be on Peter's side in feeding Bea healthy things.   
“I have to, when you two are going out for your 'little snacks'.”  
Wade laughed and agreed, remembering the photo he sent Peter a while ago. 

When they had the ordered sandwiches a bit later, Wade watched how Bea finished the last bit of milk in her bottle and smiled. Her eyes were drooping already and she would probably be out cold in her milk coma soon. He couldn’t wait seeing her sleeping face, it was some of the most precious things he’d ever seen.  
“You know,” he started, taking another bite of his sandwich in between. He loved this city for coming up with combinations like mac n cheese with more cheese and bread and all of this fried in a pan. Shaking his head just a little, he tried to collect his thoughts and finally tell Peter what he’d been holding onto for quite a while now.   
“Don’t be mad, okay? But I gotta ... tell you something.”  
Peter paused mid-bite, his eyes growing wider.  
“Okay. I won’t be,” the younger man promised right away and Wade smirked, knowing that Peter meant it.   
“Well, alright, here goes: I ... might have been keeping another hidden account – just this one, I swear – and I ... wanted to hear your thoughts – like, if you really ain’t mad about it, right? – on what to do with the money on it. I kinda got an idea.”

Peter put his own sandwich down, brows furrowing as he thought about Wade’s jumbled sentences.   
“Wade, what you do with your money is absolutely your thing. I’m not mad,” he said slowly and the Merc’s shoulders relaxed. He knew Peter wasn’t interested in money, as long as they made enough to feed themselves.   
“So, what do you want to do with the money?”  
“I thought ... well, you’ve scheduled an appointment with Matt, right? I thought we could maybe get him to figure out how to store it in case something happens to us ... anything, I don’t really know, what could, but, you know ... well, anyways, I thought I wanted to put it aside for Bea to have, just in case.”  
Peter smiled, looking so so sweet, Wade was distracted for a moment with how much he loved this man. And the little girl in his arm, too. Bea stretched out a bit and then curled herself in again, snuggling up to Peter and closing her eyes.   
“That’s wonderful, Wade,” he said softly and the Merc bowed his head, still feeling weird getting praised like that.   
“Well, I ... I thought ... it’s the least I could do.”  
“No, it’s something perfect you can do,” Peter corrected, smiling sweetly over at him. Wade sighed, rubbing his bald head and wondering how he’d deserved this beautiful family of his.   
“So, what else did you think of? I know you did.”  
They both laughed, again Peter having seen right into Wade’s mind. 

“I thought about buying a house.”  
“You mean … another one?” Peter asked in amusement and picked up a cherry tomato from his side salad.   
Wade grinned, loving the thought that they _already_ owned a house. Well, almost. The offers for the other floors were pretty good, but it would take another few months until all the formalities were done.   
“No, you sweet spider, you. I meant, like, a real house. For us.”  
Peter's gaze got soft and he smiled this super sweet smile that Wade loved. God, he was so beautiful.  
“I know,” he breathed, looking perfect how he held their daughter.  
“We can still get rent from the apartments and all, and then buy a nice place for ourselves. You know, maybe with a garden for Bea to play in.”  
Peter's smile got wider and suddenly Wade felt himself blush. He wasn't usually one to share his dreams that openly, but now he felt embarrassed.   
“Aw, you're cute.”  
“Shut it, I ain't cute, I'm dangerous,” Wade grumbled when Peter laughed, placing Bea onto his shoulder and patting her back. She was almost asleep by now and just clung to him until she burped.   
“No, Wade, I mean it. It's very sweet. But ...”  
“You wanna do your part?”  
Peter smiled, nodding. Wade sighed, but couldn't argue with that. Peter always wanted to contribute, said it wasn't all that fair that Wade paid for most of their things.   
“Just … wait maybe another year or two, until I have a solid job?”  
“Y'know I could just buy a house,” Wade mumbled, teasing his lover a bit. He could understand where the younger man came from. And he had more than enough to put his money into, with the apartment complex not being fully theirs, yet.   
“But you'll wait for me. We can take our time with this, nothing's gonna run away from us, you know. And I don't mind our current place one bit,” Peter said with another soft smile, hugging Bea to his body and kissing her before kind of laying her down in his lap. Bea pulled in her arms and legs, turned into a little ball of cuteness.   
“Me neither,” Wade was quick to say, wanting to make it clear now more than ever. He shrugged and smiled down at Bea. “I'd just like to have that … someday,” he admitted quietly, feeling weird for saying what he wanted. As if he had any right to _want_ anything with his past.   
But somehow, during the past few months, Bea had given him some of this back. She was quite literally a tie with his past and if something as wonderful as her could come from it, Wade was ready to believe that he could achieve even more. Not for himself – he was still not selfish in any way – but for Bea and Peter.   
“I'd … like to have a house with you guys. A nice place just for us. But, yeah, we can wait, at least until the little one can walk and talk and all those cute things.”  
Peter laughed, a wonderful, relaxed sound.   
“So, it's settled, then. We wait for more cute, and when our place gets too small to handle all the cute, we'll buy a house. Deal?”  
Peter reached his free arm over the table, a playful smile around his lips. Wade took his husband's fingers, squeezing them lightly, lovingly, and nodded.   
“Deal.”

“Wade,” Peter began again a moment later, waiting for the older man to look up. “You said you could just buy a house ... which can’t be from our shared account, so ... how much money did you put aside for Bea?”  
Shit.   
That was something Wade also hadn’t told Peter about.   
Well, here goes.   
”Five million.”  
“Fi-“  
Peter’s mouth snapped shut again and he looked a bit pale, gulping down the words that started to form in his throat.   
“Yeah,” Wade muttered, apologizing again after that, because he’d once said that he’d happily share all his money with Peter. Some time before their marriage it must’ve been, and Wade found it impressive he’d remembered so clearly.   
“Wade, five million?! Really?” Peter hissed, leaning forward just a little to stare into the Merc’s eyes. Who couldn’t help but crack a joke as to not feel too guilty.   
“What, surprised you married a rich guy?”  
“No,” Peter scoffed, but the corners of his mouth turned up into a little smile. “You know I don’t care about that ... but I’m happy that we can have this kind of precaution for Bea. For her future, you know. So ... yeah, thanks for thinking about that.”  
Again the praise was too much for Wade, who constantly felt like he had to do more for ... his _daughter_.  
Maybe when they had a house and everything this feeling would go away, Wade mused, while picking up his second sandwich. He just wanted his family to be well.

 

Back home Peter had to get straight back to work, so Wade took care of the household. He was happy to do so, actually. By now, Wade thought he'd be pretty content if he could be a stay at home dad for the rest of his life, but he knew that was hardly possible.   
Not soon, anyways.  
Still, he enjoyed even small things like doing the laundry or cleaning up Bea's play area, because he liked to contribute, take care of his family.   
“You need anything?” he asked, peeking around the corner to the office space where Peter was once again typing away. He'd mentioned earlier that he was very close to finishing his final draft, after that it would be more detailed work.   
“No, thanks,” Peter mumbled, having now set up another workplace on Wade's desk, where he fiddled with some tiny electronic things. Wade would have loved to understand what exactly it was that Peter did, but he didn’t mind. It was probably too complicated for him anyways, and as long as his lover did what he liked, Wade was alright with seeing weird things pile up on their desks.   
“Cool, then I’ll give Bea a bath, alright?” he asked again, just wanting to make sure that Peter wasn’t missing out on anything.   
“Yeah, good, good ...,” came the distracted mumbling from the office, and Wade smirked. Peter was absolutely engrossed in his work, so Wade would just give him some space until it was time for Bea to go to bed. Well, he may or may not have been super happy about bathing Bea on his own, spending some supreme quality time with her. 

“Come on, you little cutie bear,” he said and lifted the little one off her playmat on the floor. Bea garbled some sounds, making Wade wonder about what her first word would be, and how her voice would sound by then.   
It was a bit weird, but ever since he knew he was her real father, Wade looked at the little girl differently. Maybe with even more love than he had already felt for her, if that was possible. It was so strange and at the same time the best feeling in the world to recognize the little details in her, like the way her nose curved, that Wade also saw in himself when he looked in the mirror. Wade briefly wondered how much they would actually look alike if he was still looking like a decent human being, but was quickly distracted by Bea cuddling up to him on the way to the bathroom.

Their new bath had a nice spacious tub – perfect for two adults with a bit of snuggling, and boy was Wade okay to snuggle up with Peter in there. Now Wade took the baby tub out of the corner and hooked in onto the top of the big tub. This way, he could comfortably hold Bea in the water while he kneeled in front of the tub, not having to bend over so much, and Bea couldn’t slip away.   
On some things they’d gone all out, just because, so now Bea even had a little changing station that they could flip down from the side of a cupboard on top of the sinks. Wade palced Bea onto it and secured a belt over her tummy so he could turn around and get her soap, lotion and towels.   
“Today was a long day, huh?” Wade asked quietly when Bea made a noise that sounded tired. She kicked her legs impatiently and gave Wade a bit of a hard time undressing her, but it made him laugh more than anything else.   
Bea seemed to get a bit more lively again the moment she heard the water running, and babbled, kicking her legs all the while and waving her arms. Wade grinned, thinking about how he couldn’t wait for her next baby swim class. Even if Peter was always the one in the water with her, Wade was happy just watching her have fun.   
And he was glad to have Peter at his side, who could do all the things with Bea he couldn’t, so she didn’t have to miss out on anything just because of Wade’s past. Well, _their_ past was maybe more correct now, Wade thought.   
His brows furrowed again in anger when he thought about all the facilities still running this very second. But as if on cue, Bea, now in the water in her little tub, splashed him with water and squealed.   
“So energetic today, huh?” Wade said, splashing just a little bit of water onto Bea’s chest. She looked surprised, but then continues throwing her hands into the water, wiggling around and having the time of her life while Wade tried to wash her.   
He ended up with a soaked shirt, but a very happy and clean baby.   
Once he had a fresh diaper on her and wrapped her up in a towel, Wade quickly took off the dripping shirt and carried her to the living room.   
”Petey? Someone’s ready for a massage!”   
“You or Bea?” the younger man asked from the office area, but the typing sounds quickly stopped and he walked around the corner, smile on his beautiful lips.   
“Let’s just get Bea to bed first, then you can do to me whatever you want,” Wade replied with a wink and loved to hear Peter laugh.   
“If that isn’t an offer, honey.”  
”Oh damn right it is;” Wade purred and smirked into Peter’s kiss. Since they couldn’t have any alone time just yet, it was only that one kiss, then they went to Bea’s room. 

As always Wade felt all fuzzy and warm inside being in her room, with the pale pink wall, the stars on the ceiling and the cozy rocking chair in the corner, draped with a blanket and some pillows.   
Wade watched while Peter massaged Bea, who slowly but surely calmed down, gurgling little sounds.   
She was all ready for her bedtime routine when Peter tucked her into a fresh onesie and her sleeping bag to put her into Wade’s arms. Tonight it was the Merc’s night to hold her and feed her the last bottle, while Peter held the book they showed her. It had big bright pictures, tonight it was a story about a little frog who went on an adventure around his lake to meet all the animals who lived there, too.  
“And finally the frog went back to his favourite spot, where he met another frog,” Peter said, voice soft while holding the book up for Bea to see. Her eyes were drooping, but she was still trying to look.  
“They liked each other so much that they shared the favourite spot from that they on, every day.”  
Wade grinned when Bea yawned, showing that they’d yet to wait for her teeth to show up.   
They went on to put Bea into her bed, Peter let a music box play for her and Wade turned on the aquarium toy with the lights.   
After wishing her a good night and giving her kisses, they quietly left the room.

“So, what was that about the massage?” Peter asked with a grin as they walked to the bedroom. Usually after putting Bea down they went straight to bed, if only to cuddle and lounge around for a while. Having a baby taught you to appreciate every calm minute.   
Wade laughed.   
“It was just what you think it was. How ‘bout it?”  
“Sure, yeah, but ...”  
Wade looked over when Peter held the door open for him with a smirk. “You did enough today.”

A shiver went through Wade’s body and he gulped, but nodded, feeling his face heat up. He went in and heard the door close behind Peter, his own heartbeat thrumming in his ears. Only when Peter kissed him Wade got pulled from his own lust filled thoughts and closed his arms around his lover.   
Peter hummed against Wade’s lips, turning his head slightly.   
Just when Wade wanted to reach up to caress his face, Peter pulled him in, roughly pushing his tongue between Wade’s lips and making him moan. 

Wade felt his legs shake, knees turning into jello all of a sudden. There were goosbumps pebbling up on his neck and a shiver ran down his spine, making his pants feel tighter. Peter grabbed the back of his head harder than usual, just a bit, just the right amount of pressure, showing possessiveness.   
God, it was so good.   
It wasn’t something he indulged in often – mainly because he was too impatient and too greedy to feel Peter’s body writhing under his. But also because he sometimes wasn’t relaxed enough to just enjoy it, or he didn’t feel like he’d deserve it.   
Weirdly, despite all the craziness going on with the missions, Wade felt better than ever. Good and comfortable enough to allow himself a shaky sigh when Peter’s lips let go of his and turned to kissing and nipping Wade’s neck instead.   
His breathing was ragged when Peter let go of him completely, smirking and caressing Wade’s cheek with gentle fingers before turning.   
“C’mon, honey,” he purred, sitting on the edge of the bed with a knowing smirk on his lips and his legs stretched out just a little bit, to show off how strong and lean they were. Wade gulped and the next moment he was on his knees, grasping each of Peter’s ankles with his hands.   
He carefully took off the younger man’s socks, staring up when Peter opened the button of his jeans. Wade reached up right away, pushing Peter’s hands aside and tugging the zipper down for him.   
Peter leaned back on his elbows just to watch, smiling sweetly all the time. He gave Wade all the time in the world to slowly pull down his sweatpants, reveiling inch after inch of flawless, creamy skin. Eventually Wade followed the trails of his own fingers with his lips, kissing his way down the left leg, gently biting Peter’s ankle just the way he’d love to do every day. The younger man jumped but laughed breathlessly, music to Wade’s ears.   
He moved back up the right leg, wrapping his fingers around the underside of Peter’s knees and roughly pulling his legs apart, earning Wade anouther laugh.   
“Can you think better without underwear?” Wade teased and now Peter was full on laughing, dropping back to the bed, one hand slowly stroking up Wade’s right arm, to his shoulder, the back of his neck. Through his smirk, the Merc shuddered, leaning forward and beginning to place kisses onto Peter’s slowly filling cock.   
“I’m ... not the one ... to ... to be seduced today,” he reminded, but Wade just shrugged.  
“Nah, but I’m gonna get you nice ‘n hard.”  
Wade didn’t let Peter time to answer, sucking the younger man’s cock into his mouth and bobbing his head, pushing the tip of his tongue against the head every now and then, just how he knew Peter liked it. The reaction was so perfect, Peter moaned and bowed his back, his legs twitching.  
Wade would’ve loved to push Peter’s legs up and finger him, get him writhing and thrusting into his mouth in no time. But it made even more heat pool in his stomach when he thought about doing this just so he could feel Peter inside of him. 

“Alright ... okay, baby, that’s enough,” Peter huffed after a moment, gently pulling Wade’s head back, leaving him gasping but wanting more.

Wade heard Peter’s voice when the younger man told him to lay down on the bed and just feel, while taking off his clothes slowly, letting him feel the slide of fabric against his skin.   
With his lover’s voice still in his ears, Wade did what he was told and just felt – the soft bedsheets under his skin, the pressure of Peter’s lips and fingers on his body, slow and gentle at first, then more demanding and enticing.   
Peter kissed him when he sunk into Wade’s body, just the way he loved, swallowing the older man’s moans.   
“Are you okay?” Peter whispered, eyes darkened and intense as his forehead leaned onto Wade’s. Panting, Wade nodded, unable to form words but clinging onto Peer’s body enough to make him wait some more, kiss him some more, lovely sweet kisses.   
The moment he began to move, Wade was begging Peter to kiss him again, please, _please_. Peter waited just long enough for Wade to open his eyes and look up at him. He kneeled on the bed, hips moving relentlessly, a sheen of sweat shimmering on his skin, a smirk on his lips The he dove right in, crushing Wade into the bed and their lips onto each other.   
It was easy to forget sometimes how strong Peter was, but he made sure Wade got to feel it, holding him securely, rockin his whole body with rhythmic thrusts. They continued kissing, sharing breaths and whispered nothings, moans and gasps, until Peter hissed and stilled.   
“Don’t stop,” Wade heard himself moan, a needy sound. Sighing under a shudder that shook them both, Peter resumed moving, sucking in deeper breaths like a drowning man.   
“Wade ... gonna ... come,” Peter grit out between his teeth, thrusts getting stronger one by one. Wade grunted, so close, reaching down to wrap a hand around his own, straining erection. Before he could even touch himself, Peter swatted his hand away.   
“No,” he growled and Wade moaned, lust rushing through his veins like hot lava at the tone of Peter’s voice. They both knew Wade loved to be the submissive one, to obey and be praised for it and even though Peter knew Wade didn’t want it that often, whenever he would allow it the younger man would know just what to say, where and how to touch.   
Wade felt like he was in heaven, his eyes rolling back into his head and a strangled moan forming in his throat.  
Peter’s hands gripped harder around Wade’s hips, pulling him into every thrust, reminding him of how much strength the younger man really had. Whimpering, Wade realized that he might just come from that, from Peter plowing into him, making him feel every little move. It took only one more thrust for it to happen, making Wade grit his teeth and shudder, gasping when he came all over his stomach.   
Peter followed with a shout, shaking above him and thrusting hard a few times before he collapsed onto Wade’s body. They both needed a moment to catch their breath, but as soon as he could Wade turned his head to kiss Peter’s temple. 

“So ...,” Wade mumbled, wrapping both arms around Peter, refusing to let him go anywhere anytime soon. “How about that massage?”  
Peter laughed against Wade’s skin, eventually kissing him between giggles.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Sorry about last week, work just had me in it's hellish claws :P But I used the weekend to prepare the next few chaps, so we'll be good. Also, I may or may not have a Christmas surprise coming up for you ;)  
> Until then, have fun reading and enjoy the rest of your week <3

In the early morning hours, right on time, Bea woke Peter up by babbling in her room. He looked over to find Wade still sleeping, naked and face hidden in the pillows, looking perfectly relaxed. 

After he’d taken her out of bed, Peter went to the kitchen with Bea to get her bottle of milk ready. She snuggled up to his naked chest, uttering impatient noises every now and then.  
“I know, I know, you’ll get your milk. Let me just change you, then we can go wake Papa,” Peter promised on his way to Bea’s room, where he put her onto the changing table. She smiled up at him when Peter kissed her cute tummy, tickling her with one hand while he fished for a diaper and wipes with the other. 

After a few minutes, Peter carried Bea and her bottle back to the bedroom – it was too early for him to really get up, and it was Saturday, so he allowed himself to cuddle with his sweeties a bit.  
Carefully, Peter slid into bed and sat Bea right next to Wade’s head. She looked down at him, maybe thinking, then she reached out with a chubby hand and straight up slapped him on the cheek multiple times. Wade jerked awake while Peter tried hard to keep from laughing, and Bea babbled to him.  
“What’s going on? Why do you wake me like this? Have you no respect for your father?” he asked in a tired and scandalized tone, but wrapped his arms around the little girl nonetheless. He kissed Bea’s cheeks and hugged her close, but she wiggled out of his embrace soon to look for her bottle.  
“Sure, yeah, wake me up only to ditch me for your milk. Oh, my poor heart!”  
Peter laughed and made Bea lean back into the pillows while he fed her the milk. These days she tried to hold her bottle already, but for now Peter wanted her to stay calm for another while.  
“I’m sure you’ll be her number one priority after the milk.”  
“Yeah, yeah, I always come after the food,” Wade teased, but layed down next to Bea and watched her drink. “How long have you two been awake?”  
“Not long, maybe half an hour,” Peter replied, carefully tilting the bottle further up so Bea wouldn’t gulp down air. Nobody in the world deserved a gassy baby.  
“So, what’s the plan for today? Gotta work or can we have some family time?” Wade asked, inching closer until he was right next to Bea.  
“I’d love to spend all day with you two. But I have to do at least a bit. Maybe we can take a walk together in the afternoon?”  
“Yeah, awesome. Let’s go for a coffee somewhere, huh? Just us three cuties, a date?”  
Peter smiled, feeling his heart swell with love for those words, for Wade and Bea, for this very moment.  
“A date,” he agreed softly, unable to think of a more perfect feeling. 

 

So they went out as planned, having some coffee and leeting Bea nibble on some cookies – her teeth were starting to show through her gums and despite fearing her going into teething with all they read about it, Peter and Wade were looking forward to her beginning to eat  
After they got back home, Peter sent Wade to take a nice long bath.  
”What, you tellin’ me I stink?”  
“I’m telling you to relax,” Peter giggled, rocking Bea on his hip. “I’m taking care of Bea, you’ve done so much the last few days, you deserve it.”  
Wade pursed his lips, then smirked.  
”Will you imagine my sexy naked butt in the water?”  
“Sure. With bubbles on it and all.”  
“I always wanted a bubble butt.”  
Peter laughed and gave Wade a playful slap on the butt that made the older man squeel. He went to the bathroom and Peter heard the water run shortly after. Smiling, he set up Bea’s play area for the afternoon, glad that he could give Wade some downtime.  
Peter knew the older man did so much for all of them, not just the household. He took most nights with Bea, got up to feed her or hold her when she cried. In addition to all that, Wade also negotiated with people who wanted to sell them the other apartments in the house – he was trying to build a new future for himself.  
“Your Papa is really awesome, you know that?” Peter quietly told Bea, who looked up to him with her round eyes. Peter sat her down on the playmat in the living room and kissed her forehead, then left to get some drawing supplies. She crawled after him, but halfway to the office space she decided that her bin of toys was more exciting.  
She dug through the lowest one – she couldn’t stand up yet to reach the other two levels – when Peter came back with a drawing pad. He put it on the floor and placed paper on it, scattering crayons and stamping pens around.  
Bes came crawling back to him right away, always up for some art, and grabbed a blue crayon.  
“Should we draw Papa a picture? He’s doing a lot for us, let’s surprise him,” Peter decided and watched as Bea smashed the pen on the paper happily, smiling when she produced dots and lines. After a while he offered her a different pen and she took it, dotting the paper again.  
Peter drew a heart shape with a red crayon and then gave it to Bea, pointing at the shape for her do colour it. She did a great job, getting some of the red into the heart.  
He went to get himself a glass of water after he’d given Bea a stamping pen with a heart shape on it, so that she could scatter them all around the paper.  
“Bea, are you thirsty?” he asked from the kitchen, looking over. Bea looked at him and he held her bottle up. “Are you thirsty?” he asked again, but she just turned around and continued to draw.  
Because he knew her, Peter brought her some water anyways, placing her bottle onto a tiny pink table next to his glass. She couldn’t even sit at it yet, but they’d both decided on getting it for her, because it was too cute not to. It was quite funny just how excited two grown men could get over a pink table.  
Peter offered Bea the bottle when he took a sip of his own water, but she still didn’t want any. The moment he turned to put his glass back onto the table, Bea smashed her stamping pen onto the carpet, leaving a red splat on the fabric.  
“Oh, no baby, we don’t draw on the carpet,” Peter said and quickly redirected the pen to the paper, glad that he knew already the stain was removable from the carpet.  
Bea jerked her hand back and stamped onto the carpet again, and Peter told her again that this wasn’t okay. The third time she did it, Peter sighed.  
“I told you, it’s not okay. Give me that pen, no more stamping for you, little lady,” he said, collecting the stamping pens from the floor and taking the one from Bea’s hand.  
She squeaked angrily, waved both arms around and then started crying. Peter knew it was a pretty much fake cry – lately she wanted to test out her boundaries and sometimes had little tantrums like that. Thankfully she was otherwise well behaved, so he didn’t get angry with her at all.  
“Don’t cry, baby. Here, you can have this one,” he said and tried to distract her with a crayon, but Bea smacked his hand away. She cried louder and Peter jerked away in surprise when a pencil shot up into the air and to the table. She was using her powers again, or maybe just having set them off with her crying. Peter still wasn’t sure if she did it intentionally.

He’d been practicing on and off with her over the past few days, getting her to calm down whenever he played or hummed a specific song for her. It was something he’d found on the internet – nothing she could hear by chance on one of the CDs in the car or at home, because Peter wanted this one to be solely for the purpose of stopping her powers.  
And Bea was responding well, the only other incident – when she was very grumpy after a nap – she’d stopped right away when hearing her song. 

Now, thought, with just the two of them in the room, Peter thought this might be his chance to investigate a bit on her powers. By now he’d just worked on assumption, so he wanted to at least once watch her do it in a quiet environment.  
There was’t much for him to do than sit out her tantrum until she was ready for her song, so he might as well use the opportunity.

Peter watched in fascination, saw the water actually float out of his glass and stick to the remaining paper on the table, soaking it through all the way. With a sudden idea, Peter picked up a few pencils and let go of them again. They hovered and turned mid-air, then flew over to the table, where they clattered against the legs of it.  
His mind began to race, he wanted to measure and calculate, but could for now only resort to working out a basic theory. The materials didn't have any metal in them, so it couldn't be magnetism Bea worked with.  
Telekinesis seemed improbable as well, because the water and the pencils _itself_ weren't moved – they just jumped off the ground and landed on the table.  
That could only mean …  
Bea had the table emit some sort of pull.  
“What is it, then?” Peter whispered and slowly reached out, trying to feel the air around the table. There was no draft or wind or any of that sort. Bea looked at the table and then at Peter, watching him as she used her powers. She pouted some more, but finally stopped crying, maybe surprised that Peter was just watching.  
“Okay, okay, baby, that's enough,” Peter softly said and waited a moment until Bea had registered what he said. Then he quietly began humming the song and Bea looked at him, eyes wide, and stopped right away. The water from Peter’s glass began dripping down the table and the pens rolled away.  
“It's all good, you're fine,” Peter assured, lifting Bea to his lap and cuddling her. She whined and clung to his shirt, hiding her face on his chest. “You did very good, thank you for letting me see.”  
Bea pouted, and Peter continued to reassure her until Wade came back from his bath.  
“Aw, what’s goin’ on, why’s the little cutie all rain clouds?” he wanted to know, already in his pajamas.  
“She’s been a bit upset when I told her no drawing on the carpet. Well, but we did draw you a picture,” Peter announced and waved Wade over. He sat down with them and Bea watched as Peter handed him the paper. Peter saw Wade’s glance wander to the table, he frowned when he understood their girl’s tantrum hadn’t just been crying, but said nothing to Bea about it. No need to scold he for something she probably didn’t know she did.  
“How cute! Did you stamp all those super amazing hearts? I love it!” Wade praised when he took the picture and leaned over to kiss Bea’s cheek. “C’mon, where’s that smile hiding?” He tickled her cheecks and the crook of her neck, which finally got her to smile.  
“See, all good,” Peter said and kissed her head, then had Wade sit down on the sofa where he could cuddle with Bea and read her a book while Peter cleaned up.  
”I could do that-“  
“No, you relax,” Peter interrupted gently and went to clean and then prepare dinner for all of them. Bea now got a small serving of baby food for every meal that they had, just so that she got used to sharing meals and being at the table. She still go several bottles of milk formula per day as well, but it was nice to have her at the table. 

 

“Hey, you got a text,” Wade said after he’d finished Bea’s story and the two of them were just cuddling on the sofa. Their little girl was always clingy and they both loved it.  
Peter gestured for Wade to read his text. “The team asks if you could come over tomorrow – well, if we could. I guess I turned my phone off again, didn’t I?”  
“You did, Friday afternoon,” Peter giggled. It wasn’t something Peter minded at all, with all the work Wade had on the weekdays, he got to turn off his phone and sleep in as much as they could manage on the weekends.  
“We goin’? We could drop Bea off at aunt May’s place ...”  
“Yeah, I think we should. I’ll call them later, when Bea’s in bed, to figure out how long it’s gonna be.”  
“You know what, they love me, I’ll call,” Wade offered and pressed the call button on Peter’s phone. The younger man laughed and put some pasta in a pot of boiling water, while Wade was asking what they had to do.  
“Okay ... yeah, I get it ... good idea, yeah. – Mh-hm.”  
Peter saw that Wade grinned, because Bea watched him and wanted to stand up in his lap, maybe listening to that voice coming out of the phone.  
“Alright, we’ll be there, full gear and all. – Oh, wait, you might have to ask our boss.” With that, Wade held the phone to Bea’s ear and she grabbed and shook it, babbling quietly. Slowly, Wade picked up Bea’s hand with the phone, grinning when she used the opportunity to cuddle again.  
“C’mon, you love her, I know it. – Yeah, we’ll be there. See ya. – Say bye bye,” he whispered to Bea, but she just raised a hand and did a mini wave. 

“Who answered the call?”  
”Stark.”  
Peter laughed, thinking about the Avengers’ leader talking to their baby daughter. He really did love her, Peter guessed the man had a soft spot for children anyways, but did his best to hide it.  
“Can you guys set the table for us? And Bea needs a new bib,” Peter said and Wade got up to pick up the high chair from the corner. Bea crawled after him, pulling herself up on the side of her jumper.  
“Look who’s standing like a big girl!” Wade said when he passed her by, patting her head softly. Bea smiled, remained standing until Peter picked her up for dinner.  
“She seems to practice a lot lately. I read that usually babies start to stand and walk after their first birthday, so she’s fast.”  
“Of course, got good genes,” Wade answered with a wink, smirking when Peter rolled his eyes playfully.  
“Don’t know if I ever experienced you being ... _fast_.”  
“ _OH_ my gawd, Peter!” the Merc hissed, laughing. “I thought we don’t say that in front of Bea.”  
“I didn’t say anything, I just quoted you, don’t know what you heard,” Peter replied smugly and fed another spoonful of mushed potatoes and peas to Bea.  
“You sneaky little spider, just you wait for tonight,” Wade mumbled towards his plate and the younger man grinned, making Bea smile in return, who was perfectly oblivious to the situation. 

 

Just as planned they drove to the Avengers Tower the next day.  
“Too much work for a Sunday,” Wade sighed, looking into the rearview mirror out of habit and then sighed again. They’d just dropped Bea off at aunt May’s, where she’d stay the night.  
“Yeah. I thought we could have a day off or so. Ever the optimist.”  
Wade smirked while maneuvering them through the heavy New York traffic. It took them almost an hour to get back into town and then to the Tower, but they were still one of the first to be sent up to the conference room.  
On their way through the long hallways Peter caught a glimpse of some people’s nametags. All of them were very busy, reading on tablets or flicking through documents on clipboards.  
“What is the PR department doing here?” Peter whispered to Wade, who’d stealthily followed his lover’s gazes.  
“Dunno. Maybe trying to wipe up the mess? Or prevent one? Press and public won’t be happy when they find out about experiments with children.”  
“But why would they be concerned when it’s mutant victims and children?” Peter asked quietly, because of course he’d been in contact with people who shout profanities at mutants whenever they spot one. Some even wore T-Shirt with slurs on them.  
“Yeah, why. Maybe it’s more of cleaning up so that the mutant population doesn’t get too upset. Just imagine. Everyone who’s had as much as a scratch during a brawl in a bar could be a victim.”  
Peter nodded, closing his hand around Wade’s, squeezing his fingers softly. Together they entered the conference room and took their seats at the side of the table, waiting for the other team members to come in. 

It turned out the meeting was about covering up before the next mission. They couldn’t risk any more attention, so the PR department had devised a plan for some of the heroes to scatter around the city and find some villains to beat up, to assure everyone watching that they were all occupied and there wasn’t a mission going on. Except that there was.  
They’d start between Monday and Tuesday, in the middle of the night, from a secure airfield outside the city. They were all to come on a different route, so that nobody could assume anything by spotting them in a car.  
“What’s got us on out tippy toes like that? Is there a threat?” Wade asked, leaning back in his chair.  
The Captain put down the file he’d been reading.  
“They’re definitely up to us. They know we took down their military base and they probably know we have their scientists. They will not want us to continue looking for them, but we can’t let them hide.”  
“So we play it up real big and then raid the next few places?” Wade said and leaned forward again, leaving one hand under the table to wrap it around Peter’s. The younger man smiled.  
“Just one place. The most promising lead. This time we’ll try and take in a team of tech specialists so that we can have a chance of infiltrating their communication systems, block or mix up messages so they won’t get new information on us or fake leads.”  
“How ... big is the scale on these things by now? I mean, they said they’ve been doing this for years ... I can’t imagine it’s only been America,” Peter mused, thinking about all the possibilities of modern air travel. Especially from a scientific point – which he hated to use in this case, but still did to understand better – they wouldn’t pass on the option of getting their precious DNA from the most remote places of the earth. Where there were no mutant schools, no laws protecting them, no cult around superheroes. Where they were just weird and outcasts, maybe easy to lure in with the promise of a cure or something.  
This time, Tony Stark stepped up to answer, showing a world map on the screen behind him. There were several cities marked red, some blue.  
“We’ve agreed on letting our international teams know about it – top secret – and to investigate. They will notify us should they dig something up. For now, the only few leads we got are the blue ones and those places are being searched this week. The red ones are the locations of our other teams.”  
“But we won’t work with the military or police, will we? Can’t imagine they’re even interested in cases with only mutant victims.”  
Cap’s face darkened when he shook his head.  
“No, we’re not working with them. Mtant victims aren’t likely to report to them, and they’re too easy to compromise.”  
“So, when do we start?” Pietro asked, one leg bouncing under the table already. He was always energetic and too eager to run everywhere, but Peter liked him.  
“Now. Suit up, we’ll show New York tonight that we’re still here and in active duty.”

Nobody objected and they went to the lower levels together, where they could store their personal things and clothes and change into their suits. Peter and Wade both checked their phones, but there was nothing new from aunt May, so Bea was fine.  
Wade turned to look over his shoulder, saw Pietro opening his locker to take out a brand new set of highly expensive running shoes – as far as Peter knew, Stark still hadn’t come up with a material that could withstand the man’s velocity.  
“Hey,” Wade started in a hushed voice and pushed Peter back to the furthest two lockers. “You okay with going out? Fighting and all?”  
Peter smiled, nodding right away.  
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s been too long without a patrol anyways, the city needs their friendly neighborhood Spiderman.”  
“Spiderdad,” Wade teased and Peter smirked, then took of his shirt, rolling his eyes at Wade whistling.  
“Baby, how will I fight when all that blood is rushing south?”  
“You don’t need it anyways,” Peter quipped, sticking out his tongue as he reached into the locker to put his shirt away, then his pants and shoes.

 

For the first time in months, Peter put on his gloves again, snapping them over the sleeves and completing his Spiderman suit with them. It felt weird, suiting up again, after all that time.  
It even made him anxious a little bit, but he also felt the tingling sensation of his powers running through his body.  
Just to make sure he could still do it, Peter shot a web to the next wall. It stuck nice and sturdy when he leaned into it.  
“Test, test, one, two, one, two, all spidey-powers activated?”  
Peter turned with a smile to see Wade in his full Deadpool costume sauntering towards him. Peter thought about the first few nights they’d spend together – nowhere near a relationship or even friendship, just on missions or patrols together.  
“Yeah, all good,” Peter replied and put his hands on Wade’s shoulders when the Merc stepped closer to him. He smirked and lifted his chin a bit when Peter began to roll up his mask, stopping just above the nose. They kissed sweetly, without hurry, once, twice. Wade’s hands grabbed Peter’s hips stronger and he pulled the younger man up close, chest to chest, feeling each other’s warmth. Peter sighed into the kiss and turned his head just a little, opened his muth to run his tongue along Wade’s lower lip. On the unspoken plea the Merc opened his mouth as well, meeting his lover’s tongue and deepening the kiss as much as possible, while letting his own hands travel down to Peter’s back, then to his butt. He kneaded the soft flesh, relishing in the feeling of it, wishing he could just take that costume off again.  
“Hey, lovebirds, time to go!”  
Peter backed off with a grin, laughing when Wade dashed forward for another smack on his lover’s lips. Reaching out again, Peter smoothed Wade’s mask back over his face, then kissing him on where he assumed his lips.  
“C’mon, get a room!” Hawkeye called them again, rattling the arrows on his back to get them to go.  
“You’re just jealous!” Wade hollered back and Clint muttered something they didn’t understand. Peter closed his hand around Wade’s and they followed the archer. 

 

Not even an hour later the heroes were scattered over the city, picking up robbers or helping the police and firefighters, assuring the public and everyone watching them that they were still very much in the city.  
When a call for backup from one of the teams came in, Peter had a bad feeling that this might just be what their adversaries wanted. Having all of them out in the city, with lots of innocent bystanders around. 

It turned out Clint had spotted two suspicious looking men in suits, who seemed to wait for something.  
_”They’re definitely armed, but they’re not interested in stores or people around.”_ Clint said over the comms while Peter landed on a roof, crouching down to look over the edge.  
There was a brief silence, where the team members arrived at their lookout spots. It was so obvious that it could only be some of the HYDRA agents associated with the facilities. 

“What are they doing here?” Peter whispered, glancing over when Wade reloaded his guns on a fire exit on the next building.  
_“Maybe they’re getting antsy now that we found one of their bases – wanna have us occupied so that they can hide better,”_ Logan growled over the communication system.  
“But they must know about our numbers. With the Avengers involved, this can’t keep us too busy for long,” Peter mused, while he began climbing down the wall upside-down. He stopped next to Wade, who now had a sniper rifle up and ready to fire.  
“Maybe they’re not what should keep us here for long ... they’re waiting for something,” the Merc said, looking through the lense of his gun.  
“Then let’s make sure they’ll have their hands too full to complete whatever plan they have.”  
Wade nodded and let himself be webbed up and transported to a nearby alley.  
“Deadpool and Spiderman here, we’ve got visual. Target ahead.”  
The communication system buzzed in their ears as all the separate channels connected permanently. _“Here Cap, I’ve got clear sight as well.”_  
_“Hawkeye ready to fire, waiting for clearance.”_  
_“Go,”_ the Captain answered to all of them and that was all hey needed. 

Everyone shot out of their hiding spots at nce, leaving their marks startled. Or so it seemed.  
What looked like just another New York street turned out to be several vehicles full of armed HYDRA agents. The fight got hectic, but the Team still had the upper hand because of their mutant members.

That was, until a moving truck crashed through the traffic jam, shoving cars out of the way or flipping them. Peter had his hands full getting the few innocent people trapped in this situation out of the line of fire, so he didn’t even notice when the back of the truck slowly opened.  
“What the ever loving _fuck_ is that?!” Wade shouted..  
Peter had just ushered the last persons into a restaurant when he turned and saw something massive fall out of the back of the truck, onto the street. 

It was dark green, greyish and looked like a slimy trashbag with a horrifying face. It’s eyes were black and narrow, the mouth huge and it had some kind of claws coming out of it’s body – six of them. It left a trail of goo on the street, but was surprisingly fast as it spotted Wade on the sidewalk.

“Wade!”  
The slimy thing rolled over Wade, who shouted at it. He struggled, but fell to the ground before Peter could reach him. The thing rolled over Wade’s right leg, ripping it clean off. The Merc yelled in pain and started shooting only to find the bullets lodging on the jello-like body with no effect.  
Peter shot webs from both his wrists, trying to either tie the thing up or cut it into smaller pieces.  
But the monster zoomed all it’s eyes in on Peter, caught the webs and all but sucked them up in it’s body.  
Peter gasped, being pulled forward. Before he could react, a greenish greasy-looking mouth full of rotten teeth opened in front of him and bit down on both of his arms. He was so shocked at the strength of that thing, and at the burning pain searing through his arms, Peter couldn’t even utter a sound. He just stared at it, mouth open and heart pounding in his ears.  
A flash of white and blue flew past him, and suddenly Pietro was at his side, sticking a huge piece of metal through the creature’s skull. It blubbered, screeched in a metallic sound when Peter was able to pull his arms free. His whole upper body was drenched in stinking, burning goo and he tried to rub it off but it was too sticky.  
“Get back!” Peter heard Wade shout and his head snapped up, assuming the Merc had meant him. But he had actually referred to Pietro, who got caught in the thing’s claws, kicking and flailing to get out of it’s hold. Peter reached out with a hand, got the runner’s arm and wanted to pull him, but Pietro gasped and they both saw one of the free claws shoot forward, stabbing Pietro right in the chest.  
Arrows flew past them, slid into the creature’s body, at least a dozen in a few seconds. In the very back of his mind, Peter was amazed at how Clint had missed both of them and still managed to hit the creature’s body. Cap’s shielt cut off the arms holding Pietro and Peter quickly pulled the man back, webbing them both to the other side of the road.  
Pietro cursed in a language that Peter didn’t understand, and proceeded to pull out the one arm that was still stuck in his chest.  
“Wait,” Peter said and quickly shot a web at Pietro’s chest. The webs were dyed red with Pietro’s blood, but it would stop the worst, at least until they get him to medical.  
“Thanks, man,” Pietro said with his heavy accent and smiled, but it seemed strained. Peter nodded, then they both turned around to face the scene. They were just fast enough to let themselves fall to the ground as the creature emitted a screech and catapulted all the bullets and arrows out of it’s body.  
“Everybody back up!” Cap bellowed across the scene and they all seeked cover when Iron Man swooped through the sky, dipping low between the skyscrapers, and began firing red hot beams out of his palms.  
A horrible stench filled the air and the creature sizzled, bubbled and then exploded under all the heat, splattering the walls and cars around with greenish goo.  
_”Get back to the Tower, I think we have a lot to talk about.”_ Tony muttered over the comm, his voice sounding metallic coming from inside his helmet. 

So they did what they were told, those who had come into direct contact with the slime were advised not to touch anything just to be sure. There were decon showers in the Tower and while they longed for that, Pietro got the sting on his chest patched up, while Clint wrapped a bandage around his arm, where one of his own arrows hat hit when it came back at him. 

 

“What a mess,” Wade sighed when they finally entered the locker rooms again. He tugged at his costume already, probably wanting to throw it away since one pantleg was completely ripped off. “The big guys want everyone in ASAP.”  
“Yeah. I’m just gonna ... take a quick shower,” Peter mumbled, feeling extremely disgusting with this slime dripping off his costume, soaking through the fabric onto his skin.  
He stood under the spray of hot water with all his clothes for a full ten minutes until he could take off the costume and place it over the top of the shower door. His hands started to slip on the bottles for shampoo and shower gel, and Peter noticed he was trembling all over. The water was hot enough, but he still felt cold.  
Refusing to turn the heat up further as to not burn himself, Peter wanted to make quick work of getting clean and then wrap up in the clothes he brought. He only noticed that he panted from exhaustion when he had to lean against a wall to rest.  
The lines between the tiles moved ... left to right, left to right. Over and over. Peter heard his own breath, harsh and wheezing.  
He sighed when a sharp pain rippled through him, coming from his stomach. Another cramp shook him soon after.  
“Oh ... oh no ...” Peter whimpered and stumbled backwards the next moment. He fell and hit his knees hard on the tiled ground, just about managing to crawl forward. 

 

“Hey babe, you ready? Look what May just - ooooh alright.”  
Wade stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Peter hunched over the toilet, throwing up what seemed like a whole week of food. The young men gestured for him to go away, waving his hand around.  
“Do you need help?” he shouted through the slightly open door, but Peter just declined between shaky breaths and more heaving. Looking at his lover’s shaking body, Wade clenched his teeth and then left to get help. 

 

Peter felt terrible, curling up into a ball on the bathroom floor, his head pounding, skin feeling too hot and too tight and his wrists hurting like they’d been cut open.  
He didn’t know how much time had passed but he woke just barely when a cool hand touched his forehead.  
“He’s burning up,” a voice far in the distance muttered. Peter tried to say something, warn whoever was there.  
“He threw up like crazy when I got here.”  
Was that Wade?  
Wade.  
Peter sighed in his thoughts, wishing he could kiss his husband.  
“The same happened to Pietro and Hawkeye. I think their goal was to poison our team to render us incapable for a while.”  
“Help,” Peter managed finally, his voice hoarse and throat hurting from all the throwing up.  
“It’s gonna be okay soon, Peter. We’ll pick you up now, alright?”  
“Huh.”  
Peter wasn’t sure if he was agreeing or not, but when he was moved his vision blurred and he was so dizzy that he forgot his own name. He moaned, stomach lurching, but there was nothing in it anymore.  
His eyes closed and Peter thought he’d better not pass out, because he had to tell – and then everything went black.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thursday guys! Hope you all have a great week and that your Christmas preparations go well :D And since mine leave me with very little time, I'll get right back to it while you enjoy the next chap <3

Peter woke up to dimmed lights and a calm, loved feeling. He looked around to find Wade by his side, sitting in a white chair.   
“Hi. Feeling any better?” Wade asked, gently stroking a hand over his lover’s head. Peter smiled and nodded, eyeing the IV next to him.   
“Yeah. What’s going on?” His voice sounded weak and raspy.   
Wade looked down and Peter followed his gaze to the bandages covering his wrists. He wanted to move his hands, get a closer look, but Wade gently pushed his hands back down.   
“Banner said the ointment would help. Those guys tried to poison you and some others. It’ll take a day or so to get out of your bloodstream, but you’ll be fine.”  
“Okay,” Peter just mumbled, feeling tired. He closed his eyes for a moment, smiling when he felt Wade’s fingers close around his gently. “How’s Bea?”  
“All good, I called aunt May saying you had a lab accident – nothing too serious, just you being you. Bea’s gonna be with her, so I can stay here with you. Also, well, I didn’t want to get to her what with the people around me who puked their guts out from poison.”  
Peter laughed sortly, which hurt his stomach, his head and just about everything.   
“I miss her,” he mumbled, licking his lips. A moment later Wade offered a plastic cup and helped him drink a few gulps of water.   
“Some more?” Wade asked quietly and held the cup to Peter’s lips again after the younger man had nodded. “The doc says you should stay here overnight, just to make sure your body can work out all the poison or anything ... but I could get you home, your choice.”  
Peter smiled sleepily, but shook his head.   
“No, I’ll stay. I feel like shit and my wrists hurt so much. I wouldn’t be any help for you. I’ll just sleep it off.”  
“Alright,” Wade replied, placing his hand on Peter’s head again and stroking softly. “You still feel pretty hot. I’ll call tomorrow and then pick you up if you’re all better.”  
“Yeah. – Aren’t you sick at all? You said it’s poison...”  
“Yeah, Pietro and Clint are puking their heads off, too. I was, too, while my leg grew back. But y’know, healing factor and all, flushed it out.”  
”Lucky you,” Peter sighed with a playful smirk and was happy that Wade could lean down and give him a chaste kiss.   
He stayed for another while, until Peter was too tired to keep his eyes open anymore. Wade kissed him again and said he’d be at aunt May’s with Bea, because he wanted to be there for her in the morning.   
“Give h’r ... kiss ... fromme,” Peter mumbled and the last thing he heard was the door to his room softly closing. 

He woke up again in the middle of the night, his phone told him. When he so much as lifted a hand to look at the screen, Peter hissed.   
His hands and wrists burned like fire, so he grit his teeth and flipped his phone to the side on the nighstand next to him. This way he just had to turn his head to read the screen.

Peter had a hard time falling back asleep with his wrists hurting so much, so he dictated a few texts to Wade, who was also up. He claimed the bed was way too empty with just him in there, and Peter smiled when he read the text.   
He’d closed his eyes for a moment, maybe ten minutes, wondering if he should just give in and call for some painkillers, when another text arrived.   
“Open message,” Peter said as clearly as he managed, and there was a photo on the screen in front of him.   
It showed Wade, in bed bare chested as usual, and Bea in his arms, curled up and from how red her cheeks were probably just recovering from a crying fit.   
_“Nevermind, got myself some company. She didn’t want to sleep alone tonight.”_  
Peter smiled, feeling a tug in his heart as he looked at Bea.   
He sighed, finally reaching up with a throbbing hand to push the red button on the side of the bed. 

A minute later a nurse came to him and checked the IV bag, then gave him the much needed painkillers.   
“My wrists hurt,” he mumbled, and even to him it sounded pathetic and whiny, but he couldn’t help it. The medication was already numbing his mind and he felt like he needed someone to comfort him.   
“It’s gonna be better soon, don’t worry. Try to sleep now, Dr. Banner will check on you first thing in the morning,” the nurse said and was kind enough to pull Peter’s blanket up, that he didn’t realized had dropped from his shoulders.   
“Hmmm,” he just uttered in vague agreement, then he fell asleep.

 

Peter woke again when someone said his name, blinking into the bright light of the infirmary.   
“Peter, how are you feeling?”  
Dr. Banner, Peter realized, was next to his bed, hooking another IV bag onto the metal bars next to the bed.  
“Hmpf. My wrists hurt,” he mumbled, wondering if he really said the words or not. To be honest, he didn’t even know if he was really awake of if he was dreaming.  
“I will take a look at them, alright?”  
“Yeah.”

While the doctor unwrapped both of Peter’s wrists carefully, the young man forced himself to wake up and take a look at what happened. His wrists looked pretty normal and the doctor commented on how it was good that nothing was swollen.   
“But it feels weird,” Peter insisted, not meaning to sound so cranky, but he was just not feeling well.  
“Can you try to shoot a web?”   
Peter wrinkled his nose at the thought, but sat up a bit and forced himself to try with the right hand while the doctor looked at the web gland on his left hand with a magnifying glass.   
It hurt like hell and Peter winced when nothing but a glob if white, opaque liquid came out of his wrist.   
“That’s not good. Oh, it hurts,” he complained, head dropping back to the pillow. He felt more and more like a very whiny patient, but he just never had anything like this before and it made him uncomfortable.   
“I think some of that poisonous fluid you were drenched in yesterday clogged your wrists ...”  
“The web glands?” Peter supplies meekly, cringing at the thought of anything in there. “How am I supposed to get that out?”  
The doctor pushed his glasses higher up his nose with one finger. “We’ll try flushing it out, do you mind if I send a nurse to do that?”  
“No, not at all ... I’m just gonna ... keep lying here.”  
Bruce smiled sympathetically and placed a metal bowl onto the table next to Peter, just in case he felt like throwing up again.   
“I didn’t even have breakfast ...,”Peter argued weakly, trying not to think about how much he wanted to scratch at his wrists.   
“You did have a nourishing IV. Well, if you do feel like eating, I’ll have the nurse bring something to you.”  
Peter made a face and heard the doctor laugh quietly – at least he had fun at work.

Half an hour later, which Peter had spend napping and pitying himself, a nurse came in to flush out his wrists.   
“I brought some crackers and tea, if you like you can try some,” she said and placed a tray onto the table, placing the metal bowl onto the edge of Peter’s bed.   
“Thank you. Uh, Dana,” Peter muttered and tried a cracker. It tasted like heaven after over 24 hours of nothing. He nibbled on it and watched the nurse prepare another tray.   
There were wads of gauze, cottan swabs, a big bottle with a small, long nozzle, a syringe without the needle part – that Peter was pretty glad to see missing – a tube of creme, two cooling gel packs and a towel.   
“Alright, all set, Mr. Parker. I’ll start now, and you’ll tell me right away if there’s anything unusual you’re feeling, okay?”  
“Yeah, I will,” Peter replied, taking another cracker with the free hand and watching as Dana put the towel under his left arm, flipping a magnifying lense in front of her glasses to look at his wrist.   
“Ah, I see,” she muttered and took the bottle to squeeze small amounts of some cool liquid – couldn’t be water because it smelled medical – onto Peter’s wrist.   
“Are you often treating mutants?” Peter asked, just to make a bit of smalltalk and try to gloss over how awkward it made him feel to have someone examine his web shooters this closely.   
“Yeah, StarkMedical hired just a few specialized people for that. Don’t worry, I’ve treated weirder body parts.”  
This actually had Peter laugh, even if he felt a bit uneasy the further she got. Eventually she swapped the bottle for the syringe, getting the cleaning solution up and into the web shooter. They talked quietly the whole time, but Peter felt increasinlgy worse.   
He’d tried sipping some tea and eating the crackers, but he felt his stomach lurch over and over, making his heart pound.   
His wrist burned and he sighed when Dana exclaimed she was done.   
“Are you okay?” she asked while putting an antibiotic ointment on and wrapping everything back up with shiny white bandages.   
“I ... I don’t think so,” Peter admitted, leaning his head back into the pillow.   
“Take a break, then, I’ll fill up the solution for round two. Just hang in there, I’m afraid we have to clean your other wrist out as well.”  
“Yeah.”

Peter felt like crying, just overall bad and whiny. But he pulled himself back together and closed his eyes for a moment, listening to Dana working, thinking of being with his family soon. He wondered how the others were doing – Banner had mentioned Pietro and Clint being poisoned as well. The poison seemed to have affected each of them differently, maybe reacting to their most powerful trait. 

The second round was actually way worse. The solution burned so much it felt like a dagger being poked over and over into Peter’s wrists. Tears collected in his eyes and he was dizzy. After a while he turned his head to watch Dana work, which wasn’t that much of a good idea.   
She put the syringe very close to his skin and the clear liquid turned opaque with unused web fluid being stuck in his wrist. It hurt a lot, making Peter gasp and Dana looking up.   
“Are you-“  
Peter leaned over the edge of the bed quickly and she jumped as well, managing to put the metal bowl under his chin just in time for him to vomit into. Shortly after that he passed out.

 

When Peter opened his eyes again, he still saw the too bright light of the infirmary. He felt annoyed at his life blinking in and out like clips from a movie, but he felt too weak to do anything about it.   
“Hey, you’re with us again?”  
Peter automatically smiled at Wade’s voice, turning his head slowly and feeling relieved when he didn’t get dizzy or nauseous again.   
“Yeah, I guess.”  
“How you feelin’?” Wade asked and leaned over to place a gentle kiss on Peter’s lips. “Don’t feel too hot anymore, I think your fever got down.”  
“Better,” Peter whispered, now realizing that Wade was holding his hand very carefully. He smiled again, warmth spreading through his chest.   
“I’m glad. They say you can leave tomorrow if the fever stays down.”  
“That’s good. How’s Bea?”  
“Peachy, she’s staying at aunt May’s still – I thought I could take you home today, they only called me an hour ago.”  
“Hmm. I miss you guys.”  
“We miss you, too. Bea made me look for you, it was the cutest thing. She pointed everywhere, made me go into the bedroom, to the bathroom, even open up the storage and everything.”  
Peter smiled, slowly waking up and glancing around. There was still and IV connecting two bags of fluids to his arm, and a machine read his heartrate and other vitals.   
“You wanna have some tea or water?”  
“Yes, water please.”  
Wade helped him drink a few sips, telling him about his days with Bea and showing him a picture of how she helped with the laundry – by picking up a single sock at a time and holding it out to Wade.

When Peter laughed about the photo, there were tears in his eyes again and this time he didn’t bother hiding them.   
“Hey, what`s that about?” Wade asked, wiping the tears away with the back of his fingers.   
“I miss you guys. And I’m hurt and worried and ... ugh ... what about the mission?” he asked instead, sniffing and smiling wryly when Wade dabbed a tissue underneath his nose.   
“Pretty good, at least we have’t heard otherwise. The rest of the Team started last night, they’ll try to get as many people out as possible. Don’t worry about that now, okay? You just get better.”  
Peter nodded, smiling again and tilting his head up a bit for Wade to kiss him again.   
“I do feel better, though. A lot. Just tired.”  
“Then sleep, my love,” Wade breathed, his lips still brushing Peter’s. “I’ll stay for a while longer.”

Peter fell asleep again with the feeling of Wade holding his hand.

 

The next afternoon Peter was on his way home already, Wade steering their car through the heavy New York traffic. Both Peter’s wrists were still bound and he had to treat them with the antibiotic ointment twice a day, but he was feeling so much better. He’d slept through the whole night like a log and woke up with a clear mind.  
The moment they saw her at aunt May’s place, Bea reached out for Peter and wouldn’t let go. Every now and then she lifted her head, looked at him as if to make sure it was still him, then leaned onto his shoulder again.   
“Isn’t she too heavy for you, sweetheart?” aunt May worried, but Peter just shook his head.   
”No, it’s fine. I missed her. All of you.”  
“We missed you, too. You have to be more careful in your lab, honey,” she sighed and smiled in this way she always had when Peter had come downstairs with cuts and burns after blowing up a something that he built in his room.   
The hero smirked and shrugged his shoulders just like he had every time, reminding himself to thank Wade for this story. Aunt May cooked them her patented chicken soup, something Peter believed could cure anything. After days of only getting nutrients through IV, the soup practically exploded with flavour on his tongue.  
Both aunt May and Wade made him wait ten minutes when he asked for seconds, but when everything stayed in his stomach Peter was served another bowl.   
After dinner they all sat down in the living room, watching game shows and Bea got a cookie to nibble on, while Peter was only allowed crackers. The soup had stirred his apetit again, but he knew it wouldn’t be too smart to start eating whatever he wanted.   
“If you’re not puking by Friday, I’ll get us Pizza,” Wade promised, offering Bea another cookie, but she turned her head aside.   
“Oh, fine, then I’ll eat it.”  
The moment Wade had taken a bite, Bea reached out for the cookie, making him laugh. 

They stayed the night at aunt May’s and Wade got to enjoy a big breakfast – for Peter it was tea and toast with only a bit of butter – and before they went home Peter took a nap on the couch. 

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could get a house where aunt May can live, too? I mean, hers is a bit too small for all of us, but ... well, she’s not getting younger;” Wade said when he was driving them home, flicking his eyes up to the rearview mirror to look at Bea and Peter, who were in the backseat.   
“I don’t think she’ll move out, thought. But maybe we could look into moving _closer_ to her at least.”  
“Yeah ... – oh, so was that a yes on looking at houses?”  
“Not yet,” Peter laughed tickling Bea’s hand when she grabbed his fingers. She laughed and Peter saw Wade grin. They turned on a big intersection and Peter looked around, surprised about their way.

“Hey, we’re not going home, are we?”  
“Oh, shit, I forgot to tell you – shit, I said shit! Damnit!”  
Wade took a deep breath and calmed himself again, then he started over.   
“Okay. Okay. – So, I forgot to tell you, we are supposed to go to a briefing about the attack on you guys. We’re going to the Tower and talk a bit, then we go home.”  
“Alright. Maybe we could stop by a burger place on our way home?”  
“Aw, just for me?” Wade teased, because seemingly he hadn’t forgotten about Peter’s upset stomach.   
“I’m so hungry,” the younger man sighed, hoping to trigger his husband’s compassion.   
“We can find a place that has soup, then. Or we get you something vegetarian?”  
“Yeah ... anything, I’m just hungry.”  
“I guess your healing factor’s kicked in as well, right?” Wade mused and Peter nodded.   
”I feel a lot better than yesterday. Now that all the poison is gone.”  
“Tell you what, I’ll get you something real nice to eat tomorrow. One more day just to be sure;” Wade said with a glance in the rearview mirror, and Peter nodded. He wasn’t all that keen on upsetting his stomach again, but he felt quite literally starved. The IVs might have helped his body to remain strong, but it did nothing to fill his stomach. 

 

When they arrived in the Tower’s underground garage Peter just took Bea on his hip and carried her, while Wade took her diaper bag.   
“You don’t wanna bring her to the daycare floor?”  
“No, I’ll keep her. I’ll keep her until I have to go back to uni,” he giggled and kissed her chubby cheeks, feeling full of love when she held onto his shirt. Peter knew that StarkMedical had sent a sick note to his uni saying that he’d need time to recover from a viral infection and that he’d be back by next Monday, so he wanted to spend as much quality time with Bea as he could. The next few weeks would just be him working extra hard for some important credit points, so he’d have to rely on Wade mostly to take care of her.   
“Well, I think I can just about handle the cuddle-cold-turkey until Monday,” Wade said when they stepped into the elevator. He held his keycard to a pad underneath the buttons and the doors closed.   
“I’d be okay with all of us cuddling, so poor you won’t have to go cold-turkey,” Peter teased and Wade laughed, hugging both of them and kissing first Peter, then Bea’s cheek. “Oh, she feels a bit hot, doesn’t she?” he gasped suddenly, already concern showing in his eyes.   
“Yeah, a bit. But that’s just because of her teeth. I’m afraid she’s gonna be teething soon.”  
”Aw, my poor baby. Do you think it hurts a lot?”  
Peter smiled at Wade’s concern, but couldn’t do much to ease it.   
“Well, I remember my wisdom teeth coming in ... I was already in high school, but it really hurt. I don’t know if it’s quite the same, maybe not because her jaw still has lots of space. But it won’t be all that comfortable.”  
Wade frowned, looking at Bea like he was ready to scoop her up and bring her to a castle to lock her away from the world and everything bad. Peter reached out and patted his lover’s arm.   
“It’s gonna be fine, honey. I’ve ordered those toys that go in the freezer, that she can bite on, last month. And we’ve got a numbing creme for her gums in the first aid cabinet. Nothing we can’t handle, really.”  
“Hm, alright. You’re really well prepared, huh?”  
“Can’t know when it starts. And we can’t do much more than cool her gums and jaw and keep her comfortable.”  
“I should really read that book you got,” Wade sighed and rubbed his neck. Peter smirked, because he was always a few chapters ahead while Wade just looked into it when he needed to. Still, the Merc was a natural with Bea, maybe because they were related. He just did everything right by intuition.   
“Yeah, well, since I’ll do the majority of the cuddling the next few days, you’ll have a lot of time for that,” Peter quipped, laughing when Wade pursed his lips.   
They stepped out of the elevator on their floor and went straight for the usual conference room. By now, none of their teammates was susprised seeing Bea, but they still greeted her happpily.   
“You’re gonna be an Avenger when you’re older, huh?” Clint asked with a smirk, still pale and with a haunted look in his eyes, but otherwise also cleansed of the poison.   
“Sure, but that’s gonna be a long time. Haven’t seen an Avenger in diapers, yet,” Peter joked, while Wadde just shrugged.   
“I could change that. Or we just wait for Cap to get even older.”   
A few members around the table snickered at that, but when the two Avengers leaders came into the room, silence ensued. A big flat screen appeared out of a wall and the lights dimmed instantly, before the door even closed behind them. 

“Guys, we need some input. I’ve got Banner down in the lab, analyzing the samples of poison we got from you;” Stark began, coming right to the point while he sat down. On a smaller screen, he opened a live connection to the SI labs where Bruce Banner just sat down in front of his desk.   
“Hi, Brucie. Got anything for us?” Stark asked.  
 _”A lot, actually. I’ll put it on the screen.”_  
A detailed chemical analysis of the samples appeared on the biggest screen, including diagrammes comparing the substance to the most common lethal poisons, showing effects on breathing, blood oxygen levels, heartrate and the central nervous system.   
“Do you get this stuff?” Wade whispered as he leaned over, and Peter nodded. He offered Bea a little stuffed animal, then looked back at the screen, his mind already trying to connect some dozts between the make up of the substance and the details of the attack on them.   
After a brief pause to let them take in the analysis, Banner continued. 

_“So the first question of many we have to ask ourselves is: why did they use poison? Such an attempt hasn’t been made on mutants, yet, only on human HYDRA agents,”_ the doctor said, furrowing his brows when he showed everyone the analysis of the poison on the big screen.   
“Maybe ...,” Peter began when he tried to imagine the process of making the poison. “Maybe it’s something new. They ... made it ... had to test it.”  
Banner looked at something to the left, mayb another screen, then nodded.   
_“Good, let’s go on with that theory. Why would they test that on us?”_  
“Yeah, aren’t we supposed to be super special DNA suppliers?” Wade asked, crossing his arms and looking like he wanted to punch someone in the face.   
A minute of silence followed, then Tony lifted his head, staring into nothing with wide eyes, mind obviously running a mile a minute.   
“The poison is new ... they made something that could potentially kill mutants. The mutant version of cyanide.”  
“Because they wanted something that could get them rid of their DNA suppliers,” Peter concluded, locking eyes with the Avengers leader.   
“Because when they tested it on us ... it was on people they didn’t need anymore,” Stark replied, with their theory appearing onto the big screen with little arrows in front of every point showing a train of thought.  
“Because the tests with our DNA were over,” Peter mumbled, feeling numbness spread through his fingers.  
“Because they’d successfully used it to ... create?”


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! It's almost Christmas, time flies! D: But, since next Thursday the 24th already, of course I've got a little something for you as well ;) So make sure to stop by while you wait for Santa and the presents!  
> Until then, enjoy today's chap <3

Peter was very quiet during the ride home.   
Well, they all were.   
Not even Bea babbled around, she just listened to her nursery rhymes and songs coming from the CD Wade had put on to stop the silence. 

They ended up driving straight home, not stopping for some food on the way. But Wade ordered soup and sandwiches for them – a good thing you could order basically everything in New York – while the younger man played with Bea.   
Wade gave them some space just for the two of them, something Peter rarely got to have, and went to take care of the ever full laundry basket. While he stuffed the washing machine, smirking at Bea’s super tiny socks, he thought about the theories of today.   
It sounded too creepy and too possible that HYDRA tested their poison on suppliers they didn’t need anymore. To rule out things like these – teams fighting back and freeing their children – from happening in the future. This way, they could just barge in, take the samples, inject the poison and done. Wham, bam, thank you for the DNA.  
Wade thought about Banner’s words, that they had already succeeded creating children from those who they tried to poison. Which would make sense, since Wade himself was the first the they attacked. Then again, this might have been coincidence, since he was the closest and the HYDRA scientists must’ve known about his healing factor.   
But there were still Clint and Pietro. And Peter.   
The big ugly blob could’ve just attacked them all, but it had it’s targets fixed. Just a few. Just who they could spare. Clint maybe because they wanted to know what the poison did to humans, Pietro and Peter because they simply weren’t needed anymore.

Wade clenched his jaw, hit the start button on the washing machine and stared through the little round window in the front. He knew, from the lead scientist they captured, that Bea was his only child now. For him, it was over now, no more personal troubles with those he needed to save from the facilities. His Bea was safe and sound at home, growing and happy.   
But Peter ...  
He didn’t know. 

Sighing, Wade left the laundry room and went to set up the dinner table for the three of them. For Bea it was steamed and pureed vegetables that even Wade knew how to make, so he went to work on that while Peter and Bea played with her wooden train. They loaded little stuffed animals or blocks into the lorrys and let them circle across the floor.   
Wade had already prepared Bea’s bottle of milk and let it warm up in a pot with hot water when the doorbell rang. He got their food and put everything on the table while Peter sat Bea into her highchair, strapping her in with a pillow so that she’d sit comfortably. Nowadays she was very interested in whatever they had, so she eyed the different soups.   
“Maybe she could have some of the tomato soup? It’s not spicy or anything,” Wade offered and Peter nodded with a smile.   
“Yeah, let her try, but only after she’s had her food.”  
A good call, because as it turned out their little girl loved the tomato soup and would’ve likely gotten grumpy if she only got a few spoonfulls and then had to eat her vegetables.   
“She knows what’s good, just you wait ‘til you can try Tacos, little cutie.”  
“Oh, she’s gonna love them, she’s taking after you,” Peter laughed and Wade smirked, feeling proud all of a sudden. For what, he wasn’t sure, since he wasn’t at all responsible for how Bea turned out, but he was nonetheless happy that they looked somewhat alike and that she would maybe like the same things as him. Well, except the Merc-stuff.   
“Petey ... you’re not too worried, are you? It could also all be different, you know,” Wade mumbled, while he fed Bea another spoonful of her baby food and took a sip of his soup with the other hand. Good thing he was so good with his swords, because he found out he could also feed himself and Bea, one spoon per hand.   
“Well, I’m ... I’m okay, I guess. Just thinking a lot. But I’m glad to be here with you guys, everything else isn’t important right now. I’ll deal with stuff when it comes up, have to, I guess,” Peter said quietly, looking into one of the containers and taking a ladle to try a different soup.   
“Yeah, that’s the best way, I think. We have this cutie and everything else will solve itself,” Wade concluded, glad to see that Peter wasn’t all nerves. Wouldn’t be like him anyways.  
“So, how about you two cuties take a nice bath tonight? And I’ll get us some fluffy new bedsheets ready?”  
“Are you trying to spoil me?” Peter asked amused, while he reached over with a napkin to wipe Bea’s mouth.   
“Nah, I’d never. I just want you guys to have some quality time and I know you like bathing together.”  
“We do,” Peter sighed happily, because Wade knew this was something he especially hadn’t had time for in a while. Wade himself never took Bea into the tub with him, mainly because of all the stuff he needed in the water to soothe his skin, but also kinda because he didn’t want her to see all his scars. 

So a while later, when Wade had just turned on the dishwasher and the dryer, he went to check on his sweethearts. The door to the bathroom was open and Wade pushed it open with his foot to carry in a stack of fresh towels.   
“Aw, look at you two,” he said quietly, because Bea’s eyes were closed. She was curled up on Peter’s chest, halfway in the water. Peter held her, plastic wrap around the bandages on his wrists, and smirked.   
“She’s so cute. Wade, I love her so much,” Peter sighed happily and seemed to wiggle his toes in the water, because Wade saw the bubbles move.   
“Both of you are cute. Can I ... like, totally not creepy and all ... take a pic?”  
“Sure.”  
By now, Peter’s eyes were closed again and he smiled when Wade snapped a picture on his phone. He saved it for his personal data screen, all the other backgrounds were a picture of Bea, with the cutest smile on her face. His lockscreen was a family picture of all of them. It was pretty cheesy, Wade thought, looking at his phone, but he loved it.   
He was proud to have such a beautiful family and he’d damn well show everybody.   
Well, he already did, because he had similar pictures in his wallet.   
Wade stayed with Bea and Peter to prepare the little one’s changing table on the sink. He had some towels, a bathrobe for her that had a little hood and made her look like the sweetest little ninja, and some lotions for her skin.   
“Fresh diaper coming right up, you can jump on out whenever you’re ready,” Wade said and smirked at Bea. She was back in the real world by now, sitting in the tub and looking at him. Peter held her securely and it was clear that she loved all the foam and water around.   
“Yeah, I guess someone’s ready,” Peter giggled when Bea began to grab handfulls of foam and squish it, making it fly everywhere. She squeeled, having the time of her life, when Wade lifted her out.   
“C’mere, you nakey babey,” he cooed and kissed her cheeks, laughing when she managed to throw some more foam at him.   
“Nah, I’ll stay some more,” Peter answered and they laughed quietly.   
“Honey, you can stay all the naked you want. Please, by all means, don’t ever get dressed.”  
“That could be weird. Being Spiderman and all.”  
“I see you’re all back to your sassy self,” Wade commented, smirking over his shoulder while he tried to hold Bea on the changing table and get some lotion onto her. “How’s the wrists?”  
“Good, but now that you mention it, I should change the bandages while I’m here.”  
With that, Peter stepped out of the tub – naked and foamy and yummy. He wrapped a towel around his hips and began removing the bandages from his wrists.   
“Is it all weird looking? Can I see?” Wade asked curiously, while putting lotion on Bea’s back. She was sitting up again and wiggled about, but at least he could reach her back like this.   
”It looks normal, nothing to see. It was just pretty disgusting when the web glands were clogged, because the poison kind of dissolved the web stuff, making it come out as a fluid and not as a web.”  
“So ... there was white stuff coming out of your wrists?”

Wade grinned brightly at Bea, while Peter sighed. They both laughed and even more when Bea imitated them, laughing as well. She had no idea yet what was going on, but she always liked to laugh.   
Peter treated his wrists again and was just about ready when Wade had managed to get a super wiggly baby into a onesie.   
“Do they make Spiderman onesies?”  
“They do,” Peter answered wryly, “But she’d need a Deadpool one.”  
“She can have both. I’ll make her a Deadpool one if I find a matching Spiderman one,” Wade decided, lifting Bea up and hugging her. She mumbled something that only she understood and then sucked on her thumb – her way to tell them she was ready for bedtime.   
“So, will you read us a story tonight? I’ll get a bottle ready.”  
Wade shrugged. He actually didn’t like to read or sing to Bea, but he knew she loved both, so he did it.   
“Sure, yeah. We’ll be in the princess room awaiting Sir’s return,” he joked and kissed both Peter and then Bea, then left to go to the nursery. 

He sat in the rocking chair with Bea, leaning to the side and choosing a random book from the shelf. Bea looked at it and then leaned onto Wade’s chest, giving a silent go-ahead since she apparently liked the book.   
“We’ll wait ‘til Daddy is back with your milk. Yummy yummy milk in Bea’s tummy, makes you sleep so good,” he singsonged and tickled her stomach, seeing her smile around the thumb in her mouth.   
Peter came back in a bathrobe, the bottle of milk in his hand. They switched places, so Peter could sit down while feeding her, and Wade leaned against the crib so she could see the book.   
They went through with her usual nighttime routine, reading to her while she had her milk and then Peter quietly sang a song for her while they put her in bed. He patted her back softly and Wade stroked a finger over Bea’s tiny hand until her eyes closed. 

“She’s so sweet ... you know, sometimes ... when I look at her ... I think that we’re so lucky. Does that make any sense?” Wade asked when they walked back to the bedroom.   
“Very much. We are so lucky to have her. Not just ... you know, because she’s our daughter, but ... because we can ... see a child grow up? Well, I see this as a privilege,” Peter replied and put in the right setting on the baby monitor before sliding into bed.   
“Yeah, that’s the thing. Like, the smart thing I meant,” Wade smirked and Peter giggled, patting the bed next to him, inviting his husband in.   
“Oh, so you wanna sleep naked? Well, who am I to disagree?”   
In a heartbeat, the Merc had taken off all his clothes as well, letting everything fall to the floor. Peter smiled and wiggled further under the blanket when Wade laid down. Peter put his head on Wade’s shoulder and a hand carefully on the older man’s chest. Wade held his lover’s hand, mindful not to put pressure on his bound wrist. For some wonderful quiet minutes before falling asleep, they exchanged sweet nothings and kisses.

Little did they know their night would be pretty short. 

Bea woke up crying loudly in the middle of the night, nowhere near her usual feeding time, and didn’t stop. Peter rocked her on his arms, walked through the whole apartment with her, but she never really stopped. They ended up napping on the couch between her crying fits, and Peter realized in the morning hours that the next days might just be filled with that, because their litle girl was teething. Her upper two front teeth showed through the gums already, but hadn’t broken through, yet.

Bea was whiny and unhappy the whole morning, and Peter decided to take her on a walk.   
“You coulda woken me up, you know,” Wade said quietly with a pained expression when he heard Bea wail again.   
“It’s alright, she was just fussy. Nothing I couldn’t handle. One of us should sleep, and if you like, now might be the time to read up a bit,” Peter advised, seeing that Wade was getting anxious over Bea being in pain. He hoped it would be better when Wade knew what getting teeth meant for a baby, how everything happened.   
“Yeah ... yeah, I’ll do. And I’ll prepare some breakfast for you – no bacon, though.”  
Peter smirked and asked for some fruit instead, because after two days of nothing, and then a day of only soup and water and some bread, he felt like he needed vitamins.

On his walk with Bea, she was a bit calmer, but not much. Peter walked through a nearby park with her, letting the stroller rattle over the cobblestone path, which hurt his wrists a bit but kept Bea quiet. When her eyes began to droop, Peter felt like the happiest person on earth and went for another round.   
And then another when Bea had slept in.   
He even went to get some pastries just to have Bea sleep some more in the stroller. A young mom saw him walk up to the bakery window and smiled at him in sympathy, maybe seeing the dark circles under his eyes from not sleeping. She had a toddler on her hand that was pulling her, talking excitedly about something. Peter wondered how it would be in a year, in two years, three, seeing Bea grow up and talk, get more independent. He wondered if she would look even more like Wade, if she would talk like him.   
“I love you, Bea,” he blurted out when they waited at a stoplight, adjusting her binky that was about to fall out of her mouth. He’d put some of the numbing ointment on before they went out. “I really do, even if you don’t let me sleep. Or if you throw up your food onto me. Or if you’ll be angry at me sometimes and yell at me. I’ll still love you, little one.”  
By now they were back at the park, walking towards home.   
“I love you so much. It doesn’t matter what all those sick, bad people come up with. What they try to do to hurt us. Because we’ll still love each other, you and me and your papa.”

Peter wasn’t really sure why he was even talking to a sleeping baby, maybe it was just the sleeplessness speaking for him, but he felt like he needed to get this off his chest. Just have himself say it, let it out. And if anything, Bea was already an expert listener. 

 

When Peter came home it looked like Wade was the one about to cry. He’d finished the chapter on teething and told Peter that it was too unfair that Bea had to go through something like this.   
“Wade, it’s gonne be okay. Don’t worry, we’re there for her,” Peter said and shot a glance to the nursery, where Bea was sleeping. Her schedule largely didn’t matter anymore, Peter was just glad that she slept at all.   
“We’ll just have to keep her relaxed ... by the way, I’m going back to bed,” he announced and Wade just nodded, taking the baby monitor from him. 

The rest of the day stayed just as promised: chaotic. The pain from teething seemed to upset Bea’s stomach, which for Peter was the worst of the whole ordeal, because it required a lot of clothes changes – for both of them.   
Wade took care of all the washing, cleaning and household chores, but he wasn’t very hands-on with Bea. Peter wasn’t mad at him – yet? – but he had asked a few times if wade could take Bea when she cried.   
“Nah ... you better do that, you’re better at that ... uh ... I’ll ... I’ll go prepare dinner,” Wade had answered at Peter’s last try, so the younger man was left to wander around the apartment with a wailing baby on his arm.   
He’d tried everything; distracting Bea with toys or songs, walking around with her, holding her in all kinds of positions, even showing her videos on his phone, but nothing worked. Peter sighed when he saw tears in the corner of Bea’s eyes and carefully wiped them away.   
Then he remembered something, very faint and muddled with medication.   
Peter looked at his bound wrists and thought it’d be worth a try. 

 

In the kitchen, Wade had just turned off the last burner on the stove, letting the food simmer until he could get his cuties. He looked down at the plates he’d taken out – two big ones and a small plastic one for Bea – then put the smallest one back into the cupboard. She probably wasn’t up for eating today, he’d just prepare her a bottle and put some of that ointment on the rubber thing so she’d drink.   
Wade mixed the powder into the milk and shook the bottle, then set up the water boiler. 

Just when he was ready to call his family over for dinner, Wade realized that he didn’t hear Bea cry anymore. Curious what brough that change on, and happy that she seemed to be calm now, he went over to the nursery to investigate.   
“Wha-“  
A web stuck to his mouth the very second he’d set a foot into the hallway. 

Peter was leaning against the nursery door, which was now closed. Now Wade noticed that Peter was holding his right wrist, which wasn’t bandaged anymore. Wade frantically pulled at the webs covering his mouth as he went over, but he couldn’t remove them. They stuck a lot more than usual, and were thicker, too.   
“Mmmpf,” he uttered quietly and picked Peter up, walking over to the bathroom with him. The younger man sat on the edge of the bathtub with a sigh, very gently putting his wrist down onto his thigh to rest it.   
“I’m sorry about the web, I ... she just slept in,” he explained when Wade got the first aid kit and the bag with the supplies Peter got from Dr. Banner.   
When Wade kneeled down in front of the tub, Peter reached out with his left hand and pulled the webs off.   
“Why’d you do that? What’s with your webs? That must’ve hurt!” Wade scolded right away, but closed his mouth quickly when he saw anger flash in Peter’s eyes for a moment. Then the younger man shrugged, holding out his wrist for Wade to treat it. 

 

“It was the only thing I could think of that I hadn’t tried with her. Putting her in a web, just like in the beginning,” Peter explained, having to look away when Wade took out a piece of cotton drenched in sanitizer. He clenched his teeth when Wade cleaned his wrist, the stinging pain only adding to the stress of the day. 

“Wade, I really need your help.”  
“I know, I’ll hurry. It’ll be fine in a sec,” Wade muttered, hairless brows furrowed in concentration as he applied the creme with a cotton swab, then put a piece of gauze over it.   
“That’s not what I meant.”  
Peter placed his free hand on top of Wade’s, which in turn was on Peter’s wrist.   
“I need your help, Wade. I need you to help me take care of Bea.”

There was a brief moment of panic in Wade’s eyes, then he looked down. He visibly swallowed and then gently shook off Peter’s hand, picking up a fresh bandage and tearing the wrapper with his teeth. With experienced movements he wrapped Peter’s wrist up again.  
“All better.”  
“Wade.”  
Peter reached out again, this time holding onto his lover’s shoulders to keep him from running away.   
“Petey, I can’t.”  
“You have to.”  
“I can’t,” Wade insisted, burrying his face in both his hands, slouching down until he was leaning against Peter’s knees. The younger man kept his hands on Wade’s shoulders, but stroked them softly. He hated to be this stern with his Merc, because he knew what he’d gone through.   
But this kind of behavious couldn’t continue. They both needed to be there 100 percent for Bea.   
“Why not?” Peter whispered, one hand on Wade’s neck, reassuring him and telling him without words that he wasn’t angry.   
“Because ... she’s in pain, Petey, and there’s nothing I can do and ... and it freaks me out. It ... makes me crazy. I – What if I do something wrong? That wouldn’t be a big deal any other day but today only makes her feel worse? Like, what if I touch her wrong and she’s in more pain, what –“  
“Wade, stop.”  
The Merc looked up, his eyes dark and worried. Peter smiled gently and let his hand cup his lover’s cheek.   
“It’s okay to be worried. I am, too. And it’s okay to be insecure, because I also don’t have a damn idea what to do. But we have to work together, okay? I can’t do this alone, not when I’m still feeling bad, and not when I’m back to uni soon. I need you to help. Bea needs you.”

Wade cast his eyes down again, looking guilty.   
“I’m sorry. – That I didn’t help, I mean.”  
“It’s alright, I’m not mad. Just tired.”  
“I know. I’ll ... I’ll try,” Wade promised and got up, then looked at Peter again. “But you’ll ... like, watch that I don’t do something wrong? Just for now?”  
“I’ll help you,” Peter promised and got up as well, feeling the ointment on his wrist ease the burn of the sanitizer.   
“Thank you. Petey, thank you,” Wade sighed and pulled him into a long, almost crushing hug. After a day with a screaming baby and little sleep and food, Peter still smiled when Wade kissed his cheek.   
“Always. C’mon, I’m starving,” he said, longing for real food after his poisoning ordeal.   
“Yeah. Lo and behold, I made my darling fried chicken,” Wade proclaimed and Peter’d almost laughed if they wouldn’t have walked through the hallway. On tiptoes they passed Bea’s room, then went to the dining area. Wade placed the baby monitor on the far end of the table, where he saw Bea sleeping soundly _above_ her crib in a web that spanned from one side of her bed to the other. 

 

“Petey ... what’s goin’ on with your webs though? Like, they were super weird,” Wade mentioned while chewing. He noticed the younger man’s plate was almost empty so he just placed the last drumstick onto his plate.   
Peter grinned, also taking another helping of vegetables before he answered.   
“I think it’s just temporary. They flushed out the shooters, so I guess they must’ve flushed out a lot of the web fluid, too. Wasn’t of use anyways. So now it’s regenerating and I guess it’s not fully done, yet. I’ll try again in a few days.”  
Wade nodded, glancing at Bea again. He felt his shoulders sink down, glad that his – their – little girl was finally calm. Not just for their sake, but so that she could rest as well. Wade didn’t even want to think about all the stress the little girl had to go through right now. She deserved some sleep.   
“I also got some dessert for you,” Wade announced happily, gesturing to Peter’s plate that was almost empty again. His spider could sure eat.   
“Oh god, yes, please!” the younger man sighed, finishing his food and already eyeing the fridge. “Can I?”  
“Go for it, it’s in the fridge, top shelf.”

Wade smirked while he watched as Peter jumped up, was at the fridge in seconds and stared into it.   
“Chocolate!” he exclaimed, almost too loud. He reached in and took out the two fancy glass cups and two spoons. 

 

In the evening they went to bed early, having two bottles of milk prepared. They’d decided to let Bea sleep for as long as she would, so they, too, could enjoy some quiet time.   
“Oh, no crying, no spitting, I’m in heaven,” Peter sighed when he fell into bed, rolling onto his side and closing his eyes. Wade smiled wryly, contemplating apologizing again, but then deciding against it. They’d talked it out, and Wade was sure he could handle the next round of crying to give Peter some rest.   
The hero was already asleep by the time Wade crawled into bed next to him, turning off the light and carefully placing an arm around his lover. 

 

The red numbers on the alarm clock told Wade it was about three in the morning when he heard Bea. First she just whined, and Wade hoped with a thumping heart that she would just sleep again.   
But no such luck, the little girl started to cry a moment later, and Wade turned off the baby monitor’s volume.

“Hey, baby girl,” he said softly when he slipped though the door. Bea started flailing around in the web, hiccuping before wailing again. Wade’s heartrate spiked, he was scared to pick her up.  
“Bea, it’s okay,” he said meekly, stepping closer and patting her stomach, but she was having none of it, kicking her legs and waving her arms.   
“Sweety, please go back to sleep,” Wade said quietly, pleading more than anything. “C’mon, you must be tired, honey. Please go sleepy, for Papa?” he asked, feeling like a loser because he was too afraid to lift up his own daughter.   
“Wade.”  
The Merc almost jumped at the soft, sleepy voice coming from the door. Peter stepped in, ruffling his hair even more with one hand, before leaning his forehead to Wade’s shoulder.   
“Can you try picking her up?” he asked, not urging or emanding anyhing, but just proposing. Wade nodded and stepped closer to the crib, then very carefully putting his hands around Bea’s middle.   
She wailed louder and Wade jerked back, afraid he’d hurt her with something. Peter slowly reached around, gently pushing Wade’s hands back forward until he touched Bea again. She still cried bloody murder but Wade gulped down his fears and picked her up.   
She continued flailing around, all but slapping Wade’s face once, so he hugged her to his chest. After a few seconds, Bea went quiet, just whining a bit, but snuggling up to Wade. She took a deep breath, which almost broke Wade’s heart because it sounded like she was so tired.

“See? She just needs us. Just to be there. She probably knows that we can’t do much, either,” Peter said and slowly rubbed Bea’s back. She whined again, snuggled up to Wade and leaned her head against his shoulder.   
“I just don’t want her to be hurt.”  
“But sometimes you can’t help it.”  
“Yeah. But ... like, I read online that popsicles helped, so I made her some with oatmeal and with joghurt.”  
Peter smiled, nodding to his husband.   
“That’s a very good idea. She can have one after she’d had some milk.”

 

The next few days and nights had their rough patches, but in the end it wasn’t all that bad once they got the hang of it. They’d take turns with Bea for as long as Peter was home, and when he went to uni again Wade felt confident enough to handle the crying and everything else on his own.   
Okay, he might have called aunt May at least once because he needed someone to talk to to not freak out. 

When she just wouldn’t calm down one night, Wade eventually gave in and took her to bed with them. Peter was sort of awake, smiling sleepily when Wade laid Bea next to him. Wade sept on her other side and patted her belly until she fell asleep again. 

 

When Peter’s alarm clock rang, both Wade and him jerked awake, almost terrified of having woken Bea up just like that. But she just sat up in the bed next to Wade and looked around.   
Her cheeks weren’t as red anymore and she rubbed her eyes, but didn’t cry.   
“Good Morning, princess,” Peter whispered, leaving the lights off. “You can go back to sleep with Papa, it’s all good. I just gotta go to work.”  
Bea looked at Peter and then turned to see Wade watching her. Bea turned fully and hugged Wade, just placed her chubby arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The Merc looked like he was about to explode with happiness.   
“See, all good. You go sleepy again, I’ll see you in the afternoon,” Peter said softly and patted Bea’s back, but she turned to him as well and made urgent little noises. As fast as she managed she sat back up and crawled over to Peter, who she hugged as well.   
“Aw, how sweet. I love you, baby,” he whispered and kissed her cheek, glad that she wasn’t feeling hot again. “It’s not breakfast time yet, go back to sleep, okay?” he urged her and laid her down beside Wade, who tucked his blanket around her again. Bea looked at him and smiled when Wade kissed her.   
Peter could’ve watched the two all day, for the rest of his live, but another alert on his phone had him jump out of bed. After the full week he’d missed, Peter knew he would have to spend his breaks in the library, catching up on everything.   
It was a good thing Wade knew about his break times and always made sure to send some pictures of Bea’s adventures to entertain him.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello to all you sweeties ;) As promised, since we've all gotta wait a bit longer for Santa to bring on those presents, I've got a little something for you.  
> [Merry Christmas!](http://yourprincessluna.deviantart.com/art/Spideypool-don-t-mess-with-them-579923700?ga_submit_new=10%253A1450954182)
> 
> Enjoy!

As expected Peter’s day at uni was too full, not even leaving him time to take a lunch break. On his way home he stopped by a grocery store because Wade had texted him a short list of things they needed – mostly fresh produce.  
Peter picked up a sandwich for himself and ate while walking to the subway – he still couldn’t use his webs and it was making him quite grumpy to be a pedestrian when he didn’t really want it nor had the time for it.

 

“I’m home!” Peter called half an hour later when he had made it through the dense commute back home. He kicked off his shoes and smirked when Bea answered him first with an unarticulated shout.  
“Welcome home!” Wade called, then pecked a kiss on Peter’s cheek as he walked by with a laundry basket.  
Bea crawled over from her play area and Peter smiled and picked her up, glad to see she was feeling better. Her cheeks weren’t red anymore and he even saw two tiny white teeth poke through behind her upper lip.  
“Look at that, who’s got such pretty teeth?” Peter said, then he kissed Bea on both cheeks, making her smile brightly. She hugged Peter close and clung to him for a while, which he didn’t mind the littlest bit.  
Peter started to clean up a bit, all the while holding Bea. 

“I just got a call from the Tower, do you still have your work phone turned off?” Peter asked while he was busily walking around, putting his books on the ever growing stack in the office space.  
“Oh, yeah, I forgot. We had kind of a cuddle day today,” the Merc answered and went over to turn his phone back on. There were some messages for him and he listened to the voicemails, then sighed and looked at the clock.  
“We should come in, they say. In an hour – good thing you reminded me.”  
Peter looked up from the vegetables he’d just taken out of the fridge. His heart sank and he felt his fingertips get colder. Bea looked up at him and then hugged him again.  
”D’you wanna come with me?” Wade asked cautiously, maybe guessing what went on in the younger man’s head. Peter felt himself shake his head before the answer had even registered in his brain.  
“No. I ... I can’t.”  
“That’s okay. I’ll go. Be back as soon as I can, but don’t wait with dinner. You guys go ahead and eat.”  
Peter nodded and lifted his head when Wade came over to him for a brief kiss. The Merc’s hand lingered on Peter’s hip and they locked eyes.  
“Don’t worry. Okay?”  
“Okay,” Peter whispered and this time it was him leaning forward for a kiss, for reassurance. He desperately forbid his mind to run wild with scenarios, with images of poor, unhappy children, of crying women, dead bodies, pain.  
No, not now, not here. Probably not ever.  
No, Bea needed him to be there and she deserved for Peter to be happy around her.  
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Peter answered finally and Wade nodded with a small smile, a big hand caressing Bea’s head softly. She smiled at her father and Wade kissed her cheek, then turned around to head to the bedroom.  
“I’ll get ready.”

Soon after that, Wade was off to the Tower, and Peter sat down at the dinner table with Bea. She looked to Wade’s spot and pointed – something she’d only recently mastered.  
“Papa’s gonna be back, soon,” Peter answered with a smile and offered Bea her spoonful of tomato soup with pureed vegetables and rice.

 

Peter was already in bed when Wade came home, reading the last pages of a scientific book, taking notes on his tablet computer. The Merc wandered through the apartment for a moment, then came into the bedroom and smiled.  
“Hi, there,” he said and seemed relaxed, which calmed Peter down a lot.  
“Hi. How’d the meeting go?”  
“Good. I ain’t going on the next mission,” Wade answered and Peter sat up, looking at him in confusion.  
“What? Why?”  
“’Cause it’s just retrieving intel. Well, most likely, can never be too sure. They found two bases that are most likely abandoned – no new satellite readings ‘n stuff. So they want to go in, steal – I mean retrieve – what they can, to give us some more intel. Banner also talked about doing some readings on the place, radiation or chemical residue or something. Well, it’s just boring stuff and I got my two cuties to take care of, so I ain’t going.”  
“Oh ... okay.”  
By now Wade had taken off his clothes and put on some flannel pants to sleep in. He turned to the bed, but didn’t come closer. Peter smirked because he knew his lover was thinking about a late night snack.  
“You’re worrying again?”  
“A little – you could get us a snack, you know.”  
Wade laughed quietly and announced he’d throw something in the microwave real quick. Peter laughed to himself because actually they weren’t having food in bed anymore, since ... well since one very unfortunate incident that included hot sauce on the bedsheets that in the events of a night ended up on even more unfortunate unclothed body parts. But that was a rule they'd just forgotten about since they had Bea, because it didn't matter where they were, when the baby was sleeping and they were hungry, they'd eat. 

Peter carefully closed his books and saved all his notes, then stacked all of it on his night stand – which was a weird cluttered mix by now. His books and tablet went next to one of Bea’s spit up towels ( a clean one), her binky and one of her rattle toys, then there was his phone and notebook with a pen (for late night ideas) and a small bottle of water.  
Peter reminded himself to clean all of this up sometime soon, when Wade came back into the bedroom with a plate and napkins.  
“Best freezer find ever: hot pockets!” he said and Peter quickly got the towel from his night stand to put it under the plate before Wade put it down on the bed. 

 

None of them knew where time had gone when Bea’s first birthday came around.  
Peter and Wade had decided to not do anything big, they just invited aunt May over. It wasn’t like Bea even understood what happened, yet. She’d be happy with her family around and lots of attention on her.  
On the big day aunt May came over with a home made cake, greeting them with a big smile at the door.  
“Where’s my birthday girl?” she asked happily, handing Wade the cake to put into the kitchen.  
“Over here,” Peter said, holding Bea’s little hands as she stumbled around, showing off her first few steps to aunt May. Their aunt was so excited, she waited for Bea to come waddling to her, then hugged her tight and kissed her.  
“Happy Birthday, my sweet girl. I love you. You know that, right? That aunty May loves you?” she cooed, holding Bea in her arms as she greeted Peter.  
“Well, actually it’s grandma May,” Wade mentioned teasingly from the kitchen counter, where he just placed a big, pink candle on the cake, looking like the number one.  
“Don’t you even start! Not until she can say it herself,” May replied, but grinned just as well. 

They all sat around the small coffee table in the living room, lighting the candle and singing Happy Birthday, which Bea seemed to like. She smiled and rocked side to side – her way of dancing.  
Wade helped her blow out the candle while Peter took a photo for their albumg – he’d placed the sticker with the 12, for twelve months, onto the table cloth just next to the cake.  
They had some cake and shared stories of Peter’s birthdays – he hadn’t lived with aunt May and uncle Ben for the first few years of his life, but they’d always been invited to celebrate.  
“I remember, you had a quite big cake as well – your parents invited the whole family – but before anyone could even light the candle you stuck both hands into the frosting,” May said and they laughed.  
“You know, aunt May,” Peter said after they’d calmed down, his voice soft and a smile on his face when he watched Bea on Wade’s lap. “I’m really glad to have you. I love you.”  
“Oh, I love you, too, my boy,” she replied and squeezed his hand, then smiled at Bea and Wade “All of you.”  
Peter realized, maybe had realized a while ago, that it was one thing to know the love a mother or motherly person had for her children. But it was a whole nother thing to feel it. Every day that Peter looked at Bea, saw her smile and grow and learn, he felt even more grateful for having such a loving person like May by his side. 

After the cake Bea was clearly ready to play, wiggling around and trying to get out of Wade’s hold. He eventually sat her down on the floor and she crawled over to her play area.  
She pulled herself up on one of the bins full of toys when she couldn’t find any to play with, but Wade quickly sat her back down onto the floor.  
”Wait, wait, it’s time for presents!” he said and she looked up, then pulled an unhappy face when Wade left to run into the guest room.  
Aunt May looked at Peter questioningly for a moment, then she gasped when she remembered the rocking horse they bought months and months ago at the flea market. 

 

Wade brought out the horse he’d worked so hard on. It wore a big pink ribbon around it’s neck and Bea stared at it when Wade set it down in the living room.  
Nothing was left of the worn down toy from the flea market, instead, the wood glistened with new paint and polish. Wade had even put on a new saddle and gear out of soft leather on it.  
When Peter saw the curved bottom of the toy, he smiled. He knew Wade had bought some carving tools, and now he saw what for. On the bottom underneath the right front hoof of the horse was Bea’s name written in intricate cursive letters.  
“Wade, it’s beautiful,” Peter sighed, smiling when he picked Bea up and sat her down in the saddle.  
She seemed unsure of what to do, but when Wade guided her hands onto the handles next to the head, and Peter gently rocked the horse, she babbled excitedly.  
“So, it’s better than your jumper?” Wade asked, a proud grin on his face. Bea waved her hands and tried to rock with the horse, but didn’t quite manage, so Peter continued to move it for her. He gestured for Wade to take over and went to get his gift for the little girl – matching the horse, he got her a cowboy hat and a doll in the same hat and cowboy outfit.  
“I know she might be too young for the doll, but I couldn’t resist,” Peter explained when he showed her the toy. He’d already unpacked it, because the packaging contained those little wires to attach the doll to the box and he didn’t like to have that small things anywhere around Bea.  
Now she took the doll and waved it around a bit, trying to rock the horse again when it had stopped. Wade slowly rocked it some more and it became clear that this would be Bea's new favourite toy. In fact, she wouldn't get off it anymore and Peter had to bribe her with a spoonful of frosting from her leftover cake to get her to the dinner table – he never gave her the frosting, just lured her from the toy with it and then distracted her with dinner. He was pretty glad that still worked, but feared the moment she was too old to be distracted like that. 

“So, how's the little one doing? Is everything okay? You said you had a doctor's appointment recently,” aunt May stated while she placed bowls with steaming vegetables and some home made gravy onto the table.  
“Oh, everything's alright. She's right on all the charts, progressing very well,” Peter said and watched Wade carry over a tray with a massive roast chicken. It smelled like heaven and Peter saw Wade glance at the poultry with something close to love.  
“But what about her not speaking, yet? Is there anything wrong?” May asked with furrowed brows, but smiled for Bea and gave her a spoon. She took it and waved around with it, kicking her legs under the table and looking like she had fun.  
“No, everything's fine, really. Well, at least it's nothing physical. She's breathing right, her vocal cords are developed well and there's nothing up with her mouth or lips that could explain it. The doctor said we should just wait it out. I personally don't mind much.”  
“Yeah, let's not worry about it. She'll speak when she's ready,” Wade commented. For him, everything about Bea was perfect, and while Peter also wouldn't pressure her into anything, he at least wanted to make sure she's healthy.  
“And until then I thought we could start her on sign language. She's a smart girl and needs to be able to express herself,” Peter explained, showing how Bea could already say thank you by putting one hand on her mouth and away from it, kind of like a flying kiss.  
Wade signed “you're welcome” to her, because he'd just given her a bowl of food.  
“Aw, how smart she is! Can I say something to her? How do I do it?”  
“Aunt May, she can hear, you know,” Peter giggled and she all but rolled her eyes at him.  
“I meant with these signs,” she mumbled, looking a bit embarrassed.  
“I know, sorry … uh … yeah, you can say we're eating now. So, you do this,” Peter said and put aunt May's hand up as if she was holding something, with the thumb touching the middle and ring finger. “And now tap on your lips, like you're eating something you hold.”  
“Oh, that's smart. See, Bea? We're eating!”  
Bea smiled and put her spoon into the bowl, but didn't really get any food on it. By now, she only liked to hold it while Peter fed her, because she liked to have her own things. 

They had a nice family dinner together and aunt May stayed to read a story to Bea when it was her bedtime, making the evening a truly special one. Wade sat smiling wide next to the big armchair, where aunt May was sitting with Bea in her lap and a book in her hands. Peter was on the floor on the other side of the chair, smiling as well and remembering how she used to read him these old stories when he was little.

 

That same week, Peter, Wade and Bea were invited to celebrate at a new mansion Stark bought in a nice, quiet, suburban area. Where a lot of the Team’s resources would go into taking care of the orphaned children from the facilities. Nobody doubted anymore that they’d find more children, it was only a matter of time.  
So the place Stark had set up had high walls all around and security was of course top notch – assisted by some human security personnel standing watch at all entrances.  
“I’m so glad Stark had all this set up. I wouldn’t sleep at night knowing the children were at SHIELD,” Peter said, sitting in the backseat of the car with Bea, a printed out e-mail in his hands. It showed some photos and a detailed route to the place.  
“Yeah, he’s great at that. Made sure all the kids got proper documents – the real stuff, not fakeys,” Wade replied, steering the car around a corner when Peter told him so. 

 

Just ten minutes later they saw the house – a beautiful, bright and inviting looking building, evenly spaced out between the other mansions around – and carefully lined up in the little parking lot in front.  
“Welcome!” they were greeted the moment Wade opened the door. A woman with a StarkIndustries name tag and “Jenna” written neatly on it came up to them. She wore a skirt and a blazer that were both not quite fitting to the environment, unless she'd wanted to sell the house to them, but she was probably just sent here from the Tower to host the guests.  
“Hi, there,” Wade said and opened the door to take Bea out of her carseat. She was too mobile by now to stay in there for long, she wanted to look around and explore.  
“Hi,” Peter said as well and shook the woman’s hand. “Parker, we’re invited.”  
“Of course, of course. It’s a pleasure to meet you both. And he little lady, too. Follow me inside, please.”  
They went up to the house and Jenna took an artful break right in front of the door. She smiled as she looked up at something, Peter and Wade following her gaze. 

A sign over the door said something that had Peter’s mouth hang open.  
_“Miss Bea’s Safe Haven – Orphanage”_

“That’s so cool, Petey,” Wade mumbled, pointing to the sign so that Bea would look. She did, but not for long, since it wasn’t all that interesting to her.  
“Yeah,” he breathed, completely baffled. “Wait ... does that mean Stark named a _house_ after our little girl?”  
“Well, I’m glad she got our presents first, otherwise we’d totally lost the game.”  
“I guess...,” Peter mumbled, still taken by surprise at seeing this. “We … we have to take a photo now, don't we?”  
“What, absolutely! Gotta go and show off!”  
“To whom?”  
“Everyone I meet, you betcha cute butt.”  
Peter smirked and then laughed, shaking his head at all the ego around – both Stark's for just doing this, as well as Wade's for actually loving it. Well, Peter would probably come around to like it as well.  
So they dutifully had Jenna take a photo of the three of them under the sign, before she led them through the house. The main hall was massive, with two swung staircases – secured with gates at the top and bottom – and two arched doorways leading into wide, light hallways.  
Jenna led them to the glass sliding doors at the back of the building, that led to the garden.

There were tables set up, covered in bright yellow cloths with bundles of balloons floating above, casting round shadows on the cupcakes and candy sitting in colorful bowls on the table. There was even a barbecue set up on a little seating area covered with cobble stone and with comfortable looking wooden benches around it. Some holes in the ground had Peter guess that the setup could also be used for a firepit, maybe complete with roasting marshmallows and scary stories.

Peter was surprised to see two young women walking around the house, seeming very familiar with the place. Even more so when they set up a round of rocking seats on top of a picnic blanket. There was a big canopy above, shielding the place from the direct sun.  
“Those ... those aren’t ...?”  
”Nah, that’s not the mothers. That must be nannies or something,” Wade mentioned, sounding calm, but Peter noticed the sadness he was trying to mask. Maybe he'd hoped to see some of the women they rescued here. Maybe taking care of the children, but everybody knew that was just too much to ask.

“None of them wanted to stay,” a quiet voice mumbled behind them. They both turned to see Tony Stark standing there in a rather unfitting dark suit and tie, sunglasses on his nose. “We asked. Multiple times. Offered them separate rooms here and everything, but they said no. Well, maybe it’s understandable.”  
“Hm,” Wade agreed, his eyes showing that he saw memories of the facility in his mind.  
“Mr. Stark, how about you tell us something about our daughter’s house?” Peter asked with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood. The Avengers’ leader grinned and took off his glasses to watch the two girls walking by, nodding a greeting to them. Then he greeted Bea, gently taking her little hand and immediately getting a softer look around his eyes.  
Peter guessed that he had a soft spot for babies somewhere, but when he talked, of course Stark was all business again.  
“Well, I thought I should honor her in some way, for ... showing us ... why we have to take down the facilities. – Anyways, let me explain a bit. So we got a dozen rooms for four children each, then in addition four rooms for two adults each for our caretakers. We will employ a chef and two-person kitchen staff next month, as well as someone for maintenance. They will come and go each day, checking in with Stark-Tech ID’s, highest security clearance. We already have a round the clock nurse here as well.”  
Peter smiled, hearing pride in the other man’s voice. He smiled, glad to see that these babies were in such a good, safe place now.  
They watched as the nannies brought the kids out, all under half a year old from what it looked. They each carried two over to the seats and strapped them in, the little ones making gurgling sounds, maybe talking to each other. Bea looked over, interested in the other children.  
Wade and Stark talked more about security, while Peter watched as one of the women went back in again and came out a moment later with a bundle wrapped up in a blanket.  
She noticed Peter watching and greeted him softly, stopping for a moment to allow him a look. The baby in her arms wasn’t older than a month or two, all chubby limbs and rosy skin. Peter smiled even though he felt like crying, because this little perfect being had to come from such a dark place.  
He was even happier now that the kids had the orphanage.  
And proud that their daughter could lend her name to the cause. 

“Bea, wanna go over say hi to the babies?” Peter asked softly, kissing the little girl’s cheek. She nodded, pointing at the little round ahead.  
Peter went over with her and set her down on the picnic blanket, so that she could look at the babies.  
“I don’t think she’s ever seen a small baby, only the ones her age,” Peter told one of the nannies next to him, who was smiling at the little girl.  
”She’s Bea, right? Beatrice?”  
“Yeah.”  
A moment of silence followed while Bea stumbled through the circle on unsteady legs, holding onto Peter’s hand tightly. She looked at each baby and Peter wondered if she knew they were real people, or if she thought they were dolls or toys.  
“I’m glad that ... she’s found a family. I hope our children will find families, too.”  
“I’m sure they will. And if not, they don’t need to worry, I think. They are already at a place full of safety and love, something they deserve.”  
The woman smiled, nodding eagerly.  
“I’m so happy to be able to work here. I didn’t really know what this would be, at first I thought it was just the usual orphanage ... but this is wonderful. So loving and warm.”  
Peter smiled, feeling that this person would be good for the children, would give them as much love as possible.  
”Hey, do you need anything here? Or could you think of something in the future. I know a certain grandma who loves to knit.”  
The girl laughed, but nodded.  
“We’d love to have some hats and socks, maybe for Christmas gifts. I mean, I don’t hope they’ll be here for so long, but ...”  
“Yeah,” Peter mumbled, knowing full well how she felt. He thought that maybe some other people would be okay with taking in what was basically their child, but ... it probably wasn’t good to get hopes up too high.

“How about I show you around?”  
“Oh, that’d be great. But I guess Bea won’t follow,” Peter said with a smirk, because his little girl was now sitting on the blanket, playing with the other nanny.  
“It's alright, Becky's got an eye on her. I'm Holly, by the way.”  
“Hi Holly, I'm Peter,” he said with a smirk and they shook hands finally, then they both got up to get back into the house. 

They took a look at the spacious kitchen and dining room and went from there to the playrooms. It was actually one big hall, but there were sliding panels in the middle so that it could be separated into two rooms. The walls were painted with a similar design as the daycare floor at StarkTower – big splashes of colour everywhere, a nice contrast to the light wooden floors. In built-in closets were fluffy blankets and futon beds so the kids could take their naps in the playroom.  
Everything looked very clean and tidy, because all the babies were too small to play with anything, yet. Peter suspected that in a year or so the room would be filled with noise, toys and ... love, hopefully. 

“And up there are the dorm rooms. For now we keep all of the babies in the biggest one,” Holly explained as she unclipped one of the  
“Don’t they wake each other up during naps and at night?” Peter wondered, thinking that even having two babies in one room seemed challenging to him.  
“It’s quite okay, actually. They are all on the same schedule anyways, so they’re hungry at the same time and they wake up at the same time. Roughly. We just pick who’s crying first and go around from there.”  
“Still sounds hard,” Peter mused, smiling when Holly laughed.  
“Well, we are experienced. I guess nerves of steel come with the job.”  
“True. I always get nervous when Bea cries,” he admitted, feeling like he could with her.  
“Trust me, I was the same the first few years of practice. I felt like having them cry was me not working hard enough. But you gotta understand, it's just little people who can't talk. So they cry. And when they feel you're stressed, they cry harder because it confuses and stresses them, too. So just … well, relax.”  
“Good advice,” Peter said and Holly showed them the reading room upstairs, with comfortable seats and pillows all around, framed with massive bookshelves filled with all kinds of stories.  
They made a quick tour through the rest of the building, seeing washrooms with spacious tubs and showers and a little infirmary with three beds and shelves stocked with all kinds of medical supplies. Downstairs there was another activity room for painting or crafting, sturdy wooden tables standing in a semi circle around a teacher's desk, the walls lined with cabinets for tools, wood, metal, paints and papers.  
„Honestly, I've never worked with that many small children, I was a kindergarten teacher for the longest time. But I quite like it … still, I can't wait until they're old enough to do some crafting,“ Holly said, smiling into the room. Peter grinned as well, remembering how well Bea could hold her pencils already, how she loved fingerpaints and glue. 

Back in the main hall they could hear a guitar playing and a soft voice singing. They soon saw Becky, sitting in the circle with all of the babies around her, playing a song for them. Bea smiled wide and wiggled around from side to side, always a fan of music.  
“Thanks for the tour,” Peter said honestly when they were on the back porch again.  
“My pleasure, really. I'm gonna go and help Becky out a bit,” she replied and went over to the circle. Peter looked around and found Wade leaning against one of the wooden beams of the porch.  
He went over and quietly stood beside his lover for a moment, their shoulders touching. 

“The place is wonderful, Wade,” Peter said after a moment and smiled when he heard Bea laugh. They’d both decided to enjoy some quality time together as long as Bea was playing nicely with the nannies.  
“Yeah, it’s awesome.”  
Peter stepped closer to Wade, who smiled into his soda can and put an arm around Peter’s waist, pulling him even closer.  
“Now we just have to fill it up,” Wade mentioned, surely intending to joke, but none of them managed more then a small smile.  
“We will. We’ll save all those children,” Peter responded, his voice not more than a whisper.  
“Maybe there aren’t even that many. Maybe he guy was just bluffing.”  
“Hm.”  
Peter leaned his head on Wade’s shoulder, wanting to hope as well, but feeling the pang in his chest when he thought about the possibility of there being a child ... _his_ child.  
“You know, Petey ...” Wade began, sounding calm and relaxed. Peter tightened his hold around Wade to let him know he was listening. Both still watched their daughter when Wade continued.  
“I feel like ... I should be on my knees every day, thanking whatever weirdo rules over the universe right now, because I get to have you and Bea and this crazy good life. I think I’ve never felt so much love. I didn’t think I ever could, you know. Sometimes it feels like my chest should just blow up or something. Now, with Bea, it’s like everything got multiplied my a thousand or something.”  
Peter turned his head and smiled against Wade’s shoulder, closing his eyes for a moment.  
“What I want to say ... with all that rambling ... is that ... and that might not sound super smarty pants of me ... but I think that as long as there is this much love around, like, being a good thing and all, it's gonna be stronger than anything bad that could come around.”  
Smiling wider, Peter closed both arms around Wade, hiding his face on the older man's chest.  
“It does sound smart. And you're right.”


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D A super long chap just for you! And there may or may not something smutty following tonight ;) Keep your eyes open for it, until then, enjoy <3

They spent a nice afternoon at the orphanage, having a barbecue in the early evening once most members of the team were in. Peter noticed how especially Pietro eyed the children, looking at each one for a long moment before minutely shaking his head and looking at another one.  
Peter could guess what went through the man's head, but he didn't say anything about it. If one of those children were his, he'd knew already, so it was likely Pietro was thinking about the very same thing that had occupied Peter's mind the past few days: That there's a child of his somewhere out there, maybe suffering, while those people tried to get rid of him.   
They tried to separate them, to keep them from getting their children and all the others out of this situation. 

They all tried to distract one another, at least for one evening, to have a good time and celebrate what they'd accomplished already.  
After dinner, Peter and Wade drove home, Bea sleeping soundly in her car seat.   
“She's out cold. Look at that face,“ Wade cooed, smiling down at the little girl while Peter steered the car home.  
“Yeah, she's had a great day, playing with the nannies and the babies – oh, there's another music class starting in two weeks, should I book it?”  
“Sure, go for it, she'll love it,” Wade agreed happily. Peter himself wouldn't be able to attend all that many classes with her, since his graduation came closer every day. But Wade was always eager to do things with her, have her learn something new. 

 

Back at their place, they took some time to put Bea to bed and then cleaned up the apartment. It wasn't at all romantic, Wade thought, as he saw Peter walk by with a big bin of dirty laundry. The dryer was just done and Peter stuffed everything dirty into the washer and then unloaded the dryer into his bin.   
“You almost done?” Wade asked as he put out some bottles for the next day on a clean white cloth in the kitchen.   
“Yup, almost. Gonna fold this in the bedroom and then we can call it a night,” Peter replied and walked over into the hallway again with his bin. Wade nodded to himself, checking Bea's play area but everything was pretty organized. He exchanged some of her toys with some from the storage closet – this way she wouldn't get bored of them too soon – and then followed his lover, turning off all the lights as he went.   
Since Wade was a pretty good guy in terms of security, the system updated itself to full night time status once all the lights in the kitchen and living room were turned off after a certain time of day. It would stay this way until one of them turned it off manually on a panel in the hallway. 

In the bedroom, Wade found Peter on the floor, making quick work of all the laundry. He stacked everything back into the basket while Wade patted their pillows and shook out the blankets to make everything nice and cosy.  
Peter put away their clothes and then tugged off his shirt.   
“Hey there, if that isn't my yummy Spidey getting' naked,” Wade commented, smiling when Peter laughed.   
“Is that an observation or are you going to do something about it?”  
“Always so sciency. But, yeah, lemme have some o' that.”

Wade went over and closed the bedroom door, then turning off the light to only leave the lamps on their bedside tables provide a soft glow.  
“Y’know, you worked pretty hard tonight...” Wade mumbled and Peter smirked, meeting Wade halfway, laughing when the older man grabbed his hips and manoeuvred him closer to the bed.

“C’mon, let me make you feel good. Relax a bit,” he coaxed and Peter gasped out a laugh when Wade gave the hem of his sweatpants a hard tug, making it ride low over those delicious hipbones. He kneeled down and smirked when he felt Peter squirm in his hands.  
“You deserve it. Workin’ all the time.”  
“You work a lot, too,” Peter said, voice raspy, and cleared his throat. Wade smirked, all the while pulling the pants lower and lower, exposing more skin to let his lips and tongue travel over.   
“Ah, you mean by playing stay-at-home-mom?”  
“Don't.”  
Wade shrugged when Peter tugged on his ear as punishment. Peter didn't like when Wade talked down on himself like that, because in his opinion Wade did a huge task taking care of Bea most of the time.   
“Sorry,” Wade mumbled, still feeling weird about taking credit for staying at home all the time. But Peter made sure to remind him often enough that what he did was a huge help.   
“Well, you can make it up to me?”   
Wade laughed out loud and bit down into the soft flesh on Peter's belly teasingly. The younger man yelped and tried to get out of his lover's hold, but Wade didn't let him go.   
“I'm sure I can get _some_ things up in here.”

With that, Wade shoved Peter onto the bed and kneeled on the edge, leaving the younger man no time to even react. Wade threw Peter's sweatpants off to the side and gave his filling cock a few quick tugs before sucking him down. 

Gasping, Peter arched off the bed and tried to keep quiet, but it was nearly impossible. Wade took him all the way in and swallowed around him.   
“Oh god ...” Peter breathed, his eyes rolling back into his head as shiver after shiver washed over his body. His blood felt like pure lava running through his veins and Peter put his feet up on the edge of the bed, desperate for at least a little leverage.   
But Wade held his hips in an iron grip from then on, controlling every move and just allowing him a little thrust up every now and then. It’d been too long since they had some time for just the two of them and Peter soon felt his whole body tingling and his pulse racing. 

When he couldn't handle being still any more, his muscles straining to move, Peter reached down with trembling hands and placed them on Wade's head.  
“Can I? Please? ”Peter huffed out, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment to try and calm down a little.   
When Peter’s fingers caressed the side’s of Wade’s face, the older man shuddered and nodded, sliding backwards down the bed until his knees landed on the floor with a thud, pulling Peter with him to the edge. With his feet back on the ground, Peter would have much more leverage and Wade was basically at his mercy for as long as Peter held his head like this.   
The younger man smiled briefly when Wade relaxed against his hold, glad to see him letting go if just for a moment.   
“You ready?” Peter huffed, his hips twitching forward when Wade swirled his tongue around the head of his cock. He slid down further, encouraging his lover to go.   
“Alright …,” Peter mumbled taking a deep, shuddering breath, forcing himself to calm down a bit, because he wanted this to last at least a moment. Carefully, Peter adjusted his grip on Wade's head, fingertips along the older man's jawline, feeling his mouth open wide around Peter's cock.   
Then he began pumping his hips, holding back only a little, since he knew how much Wade loved this. Wade moaned, only interrupted every now and then by choking sounds, but he was always pliant and willing – he could, after all, just pull away from Peter's hold.   
“You're so good for me,” Peter managed to breathe out, watching Wade shudder and lift his head a bit more to allow Peter to thrust in deeper. The younger man sighed and let his head fall back, moving only his hips back and forth, feeling every inch he dove into Wade's mouth and throat.   
This never lasted long, especially not when Wade was alternating between letting Peter use his mouth just like that and then sucking on him whenever he drew back.  
“I … gotta stop …,” Peter croaked out and wanted to scoot further back on the bed, away from Wade's incredible mouth. But the older man just grabbed his lover's hips and pulled them forward, swallowing him down again.  
Peter gasped and arched his back, thrusting as deep into Wade’s throat as he could, coming with a shout.   
“Ah, god …,” Peter hissed and quickly pulled out, unable to take any more stimulation at this point.  
“Always happy to please,” Wade joked, his voice rougher than usual. Peter smirked and wiped the layer of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.   
”But what about you?” he asked and looked down at Wade when the older man had fallen silent. Peter suppressed a laugh when Wade looked almost shocked, as if he recognized only now that he was also hard.   
“I kinda didn’t plan that, did I? You okay with another round?” Wade asked, glancing over at the baby monitor quickly. Peter followed his gaze, seeing that Bea was sound asleep, sprawled out in her crib.   
“Absolutely. But don’t be offended if it takes me another while,” Peter mentioned, gesturing to his groin. Wade shrugged, getting up to get lube and a condom – they’d decided on using them again just because it was much easier and faster cleanup.   
“I’ll get little Spidey to stand at attention again in no time, you’ll see,” he said cheerfully, motioning for Peter to get further onto the bed before kneeling between his lover’s spread legs.   
“Don’t call him little,” Peter mumbled, which always got Wade to laugh. Which also didn’t mean he’d ever really stop saying it.   
“I’m sorry. Oh, poor Spidey, of course I meant _huge, massive_ -“  
“You’ll get to work now or what?” Peter interrupted, giggling at Wade’s words nonetheless.   
“Bossy. I like it.”  
“I know you do,” Peter smirked, but then a moan escaped his lips when two of Wade’s fingers pushed against his hole.   
“I like lotsa things ‘bout you,” Wade replied casually, pushing forward roughly, but with enough lube on his fingers to make it drip down Peter’s skin. The stretch made Peter shiver and throw his head back while he bit down on his lip. It was a bit too rough, just on the fine line between pain and pleasure, making Peter's head swim.   
“You got it, sweetie,” Wade praised, his voice dark and raspy when he pushed in all the way, slow, so slow, then back out just far enough to let the pads of his fingers graze Peter's prostate. The younger man moaned, reaching up to hold onto the pillow with one hand, to the head of the bed with the other. Wade granted Peter a moment to catch his breath while he slowly, gently massaged his insides. Then he began thrusting, a strong, almost brutal push and pull, but still so slow that Peter feared he might come just from that.   
His cock throbbed when it began firming up again and Peter begged Wade not to touch it; he couldn't handle that.  
“I gotcha, sweetie. Look at your pretty cock, all red. I could just suck it all night,” Wade teased as he pulled out his fingers to put on a condom. Peter trembled, because he knew he wasn't anything close to loose and it would be quite a stretch. A stream of pre-cum rolled down his length as he watched Wade slick himself up, making the older man smirk at the sight.   
“Can't wait?” he teased and Peter smirked, but only for a moment. His mouth went slack and his brows furrowed in concentration when Wade lined up and he started to feel the pressure of him pushing in.   
He never stopped, pushed all the way in slowly, but rough enough for Peter to groan and throw his head back.   
„You're so tight … I love it … I love you … does it hurt?“ Wade huffed out when he had sunk into Peter's body to the hilt, finally granting both of them a moment to relax.  
„No … It's good, so good …“  
Wade smiled and leaned down to kiss his lover, slide his tongue over the younger man's lower lip, then licking into his mouth. Peter moaned into the kiss, feeling too full and too hot and everything at once and still not enough of anything. He trembled and at some point just couldn't handle going slow, so he began undulating his hips against Wade's. 

The older man sucked in a deep breath through his nose and mumbled something against Peter's shoulder,   
Wade pulled Peter up, cradling him in his arms, laughing breathily when Peter slung his legs around Wade's hips and hugged him tight.   
“God, I love this. I love you,” the Merc whispered and Peter smiled when he began moving on his own, sliding up and down in Wade's lap, making him groan. “ _Fuck_ , that feels amazing, Petey … Yeah, c'mon, move for me.”  
Gasping for air, Peter leaned his forehead against Wade's shoulder, his fingertips digging into his lover's muscles. Peter's cock was trapped between their bodies, rubbing onto both their skin and smearing pre-come.   
When Peter leaned back Wade looked between them and licked his lips, unable to keep from moving now.   
“You're so perfect … god, I could do you forever,” Wade mumbled, sounding hoarse. 

„Wade … I … need …;“ Peter managed to gasp with every tjhrust, his tone whiny and strained, his body craving more.   
„Gotcha, Spidey,“ the Merc said and slung both arms around his lover's slim hips, He briefly kissed Peter's neck, feeling the younger man's heartbeat against his lips. „Hold on,“ he murmured against warm and slightly slick skin, smiling when Peter whined but put both arms around Wade's neck. 

Wade all but threw them back onto the bed, Peter on his back. He grabbed the hero's hips hard and thrust up into his body, feeling lightheaded by the lust exploding all over his body, tingles shooting up and down his spine, Peter's moans in his ear. 

 

In the morning, it was Bea who was up first, making happy sounds and patting her hands onto the frame of her crib, because she knew Wade and Peter could hear it.   
„Well, somebody's energetic,“ Wade mumbled and rolled over to his side and then onto Peter, who was lying face down on the bed. Rough lips found that one perfect spot between Peter's shoulder blade that always made him shiver.  
„Good morning;“ the younger man whispered, sighing when Wade kissed that spot again.  
„You gonna get the princess?“   
“I don't think I can walk, yet,” Peter mumbled into the pillow, looking over his shoulder with a smirk and just one eye open. The Merc laughed, pushing his covers aside and hopping out the bed.   
“Good, then I get that cutie all to myself!”   
He practically ran over to the nursery and Peter heard Bea squeal happily a moment later. He smiled into his pillow and listened to the muffled sounds of Wade talking to Bea while he gave her a fresh diaper.   
“Should we go wake Daddy up?”  
“I'm up already!” Peter called over and laughed into his pillow when Bea shouted back. 

Peter just sat up when Bea stumbled into the bedroom, holding tight onto Wade's hand. The younger man smiled wide, so happy to see their little girl, and so proud that she could walk so well already.   
Wade let go of her hand and she stood in the bedroom, looking up to him. Her blond locks were getting longer now and Peter knew Wade had already gotten some bows and clips for it. 

“Petey, look what I taught her!” Wade exclaimed happily and stood next to Bea in her footie pyjamas. Then he flexed his muscles and right away she copied Wade, raising her chubby arms and showing off her “muscles”, too. He made another pose, Bea imitating it right away.  
After just a minute, Peter felt his sides hurt because he was laughing so hard. He couldn't even take a picture of it because he laughed so much.

Peter beckoned Bea over when he could breathe again, waiting patiently for her to waddle over to the bed. She smacked both arms onto the mattress and tried to pull herself up, but only managed to climb up when Wade pushed her butt.   
“There you are. Can I get a kiss?” Peter asked and Bea snuggled up next to him, then giving him a big wet smack on the cheek. Peter laughed and tickled her, listening to her wonderful laugh as well.   
“You two are too cute. Breakfast in bed?”  
“No. We're big boys and girls, we'll eat at the table,” Peter said, still hugging Bea and rolling left to right with her, making her squeal and laugh.   
“But then we're at least gonna stay in our pyjamas, 'cause it's gonna be a super cosy breakfast,” Wade insisted and Peter nodded. By now, Bea was sitting on his stomach and looked up to Wade when he spoke.   
“So, how's it, little cutie? You hungry?” Wade asked and signed for eating, which Bea imitated right away.   
“Then we're gonna eat now. You also want milk?” Wade asked, signing milk, and Bea nodded eagerly. Peter smirked, because she had just as big as an appetite as her father. 

So they got up to set the table and grab some breakfast, with Bea finishing a full bowl of fruit and oatmeal, then half a bottle of milk.  
“Someone's in need of serious fuel, huh? I swear we're waking you up tomorrow and you're gonna be bigger than me!” Wade said when he set Bea's bottle down on the table. The moment she was done with her meal, she wanted to play, so Peter took her out of her seat so she could crawl over to her play area. 

They went on with their usual routines – Peter working on his research and papers for uni, and Wade taking care of the household. The Merc already planned their next shopping tour and cut out some coupons, organizing them into a folder neatly while Bea was playing with her building blocks that were scattered all over the carpet.   
“You got an eye on her?”  
“Yeah, go ahead!” Peter called back from the office, where he could see the little one playing. Wade went into the bathroom and into Bea's room, collecting laundry to wash. Then he put the load from the washing machine into the dryer and then turned on both machines. 

 

Peter typed away on his computer, feeling a bit bad that the whole desk was occupied by his trinkets, gadgets and papers. But it couldn't be helped for now and Wade had said time and time again that he was okay with having Peter take up all this space. The Merc currently had his laptop on the kitchen counter to organize a shopping trip – and play some songs for Bea.  
“Bea, c'mon and clean up your pencils over here! Petey, you got a minute?” Wade called from the hallway and the hero quickly saved his work and got up, tiptoeing around Bea's building blocks. The little girl followed him to the coffee table, where she'd been drawing after her nap but had quickly abandoned everything.

Wade just placed his work phone onto the polished surface of the kitchen counter before meeting Peter's gaze.  
“Just got a call from the Tower, they wanna go on another mission.”  
Peter's smile fell, but he nodded right away.  
“A real one this time?”  
“Yeah, seems like it,” Wade replied, collecting the pencils all around and putting them back into a big plastic cup. Bea helped him by slowly picking up a pen, then another. 

“Yeah, I’ll leave in two days with the guys, we’ll take down another facility. Give those-“  
Wade stopped when he realized Bea had stepped up to him, looking up with pleading eyes. He didn’t have words for the way it made him feel when she reached out to grab the fabric of Wade’s pants as if to stop him. She'd even dropped all her pens.   
“I ... I mean ...”  
Wade sunk to his knees in front of Bea, taking her hands.   
“Bea, it’s okay,” Peter said, sitting down on the floor with them. She shook her head urgently, now taking a hold of Wade’s shirt. “Bea, Papa has to go help. He’ll be back, he’ll come back to us real soon,” Peter tried, placing a hand on the little girl’s shoulder.   
“Yeah, I’ll come back, of course I will,” Wade promised, smiling, but Bea wasn’t having any of it. She pushed out her bottom lip and flat out cried a moment after, wailing and sitting on the floor, hands on her eyes in a heartbreaking picture of sadness.   
Peter knew most of that was show – she was old enough to understand her crying would get both of them to react – but in that situation it _did_ touch both of them. Wade sighed, scooping Bea up and hugging her tight, while Peter rubbed a hand over her back. 

She basically clung to Wade for the rest of the day, maybe thinking he’d leave immediately. Even when it was time for bed, Bea started to cry, something she very rarely did, and only calmed down when Wade offered to hold her until she fell asleep. 

“I don’t know what’s gotten into her,” Peter sighed, troubled to think their daughter was unhappy and there wasn’t much he could do about it. Wade, who’d just stepped into the bedroom, nodded.  
“It’s so hard to see her cry ... I hate it.”  
Patting the bed, Peter smiled when Wade followed his unspoken request and sunk onto the mattress next to him a moment later.   
“I’ll think of something, it’ll be a few more days until I go. Don’t wanna leave her just like that.”  
Peter smiled, leaning against Wade’s shoulder as they sat side by side in the bed.  
“Sometimes you can’t take it from her, you know. She’s gonna be sad every now and then.”  
“No. Not when I can prevent it,” Wade argued stubbornly. “I hate so see her cry,” he muttered again and Peter leaned over to kiss him.   
“I know.”  
Wade sighed, rolling over and throwing an arm around Peter's waist.   
“Just a few more missions, that's what Imma keep tellin' myself … just a few more,” he mumbled, sighing again. “But maybe it's gonna be a few more … maybe she'll understand some time later.”  
“She will. And I'm sure she'll admire you for helping.”  
“Aw. That's be great. - I guess anything to do with her understanding us better is great,” Wade joked and Bea laughed, because it was quite true that there was extremely much room for misunderstandings with toddlers. Bea just didn't understand sometimes, or thought Wade or Peter would take something away from her when they just wanted to help her use or open it. And the fact that she couldn't talk yet didn't make it any easier, but none of them would ever hold that against her. 

 

The next day, Peter left early to go to uni, but thankfully got home early enough to look after Bea while Wade went to run some errands for them. He came back with two loaded shopping bags, happily announcing that he'd only paid five dollars for all of it, thanks to his coupons.   
“Now, where's my little babygirl?” Wade asked when he went to the door again to pick up a big box waiting outside.   
“Playing wild west with her horsey. Bea, come to Papa, please!”  
A moment later, she waddled around the corner, smiling wide and stretching out her arms to Wade. 

“Look what I gotcha! Only for you!” Wade said excitedly, holding out a big box wrapped in colorful paper with a bow. Peter smirked when Bea turned to crawling right away to be faster, then got onto her feet and made impatient little noises with her hands held out. 

Wade sat down with her on the floor and helped her by making a little tear in the wrapping paper.  
She opened the present very carefully, almost cherishing every moment while she peeled off the paper and then watched as Wade opened the box for her. They reached inside together, pulling out a stuffed bear about half Bea’s size. She couldn’t quite reach around the middle of the chubby toy, but hugged it tight nonetheless. After a moment, though, she lifted one hand to sign “thank you” to Wade, making both of them smile and sign back “you’re welcome”.

“Aw, look, best friends!” Wade said happily when Bea hugged the bear again and Peter laughed, taking a photo with his phone. The bear had a reddish brown fur, black paws and black rings around both his eyes – it looked like a toned-down bear-version of Deadpool. The best thing about it was it’s Spiderman shirt.   
“Bea, you know what Mr. Spiderbear is for?” Wade asked, looking over to Peter with a wink, who grinned at that name. Bea shook her head, still clutching the toy.   
“He’ll be here with you while I go and work. You know, he’s super strong, like, _real_ strong. He’ll watch out for you and Daddy until I’m back.”  
Bea looked at the bear again, then to Wade.   
“Did you understand? Bear is a hero.”  
Bea nodded – she probably knew the word “hero” because she liked to watch superhero cartoons – and hugged the bear again, ultimately refusing to let go for the rest of the day. She still kept an eye on Wade, making sure he wasn't just up and leaving whenever she played, but she was calmer for the rest of the day and went to bed without a crying fit this time.

The next day Peter let them spend lots of quality time together, having them go out for some grocery shopping and then to the nearby park while he prepared dinner.   
“She loved it!” Wade announced as he tried to maneuver Bea out of her sweater – it wasn't all that warm outside – while she wiggled around and wanted to play. “But, you know … she kept pointing to the top of the play structure, you know, the one tower that's like _really_ high up?”  
Peter pursed his lips and tried to look as innocent as possible while he stirred the pot with soup.   
“Oh, how odd.”  
“Yeah, super odd, right?”  
Peter couldn't hide a smirk at Wade's tone, and laughed when the Merc pointed at him with an accusing “A-HA!”  
“We were up there one time! There wasn't anybody around.”  
“Gonna make a spider-baby outta her or what?” Wade giggled, watching how Bea stumbled off to her play area.  
“You know I always got her on a web, right?”  
“I know, Spidey. I'm just messin' with you. And a bit jealous because I can't get up there with her without having a heart attack.”  
Peter laughed, promising that he'd take all three of them somewhere up high when Bea was a bit older. 

 

In the early morning hours of the mission-day, Wade and Peter were already up, cleaning and preparing some things.   
Peter had decided to try and spend some time alone with Bea, because he couldn't always bother aunt May with it, nor could he abandon all his work waiting on the loaded desk at home. Also, he kind of wanted to prove to himself that he could handle it for himself.  
So the two men went through the apartment earlier than usual, because Wade had to leave for the Tower soon and would drop Peter and Bea off at uni. The younger man had some paperwork to do and needed to visit the library. It wasn't that big or lengthy of a trip that he couldn't bring Bea, and she'd probably like the trip.

“Alright, time to wake up sleeping beauty,” Peter mumbled with a glance to the clock in the kitchen, and Wade's shoulders sank. They exchanged a look, the Merc cocking his head to the side and smiling apologetically.  
“Can you ...?”  
Peter smirked and nodded, going over to the nursery. And just like they both thought Bea cried in the morning, because of course being woken up is a terrible thing for a toddler. She held onto Peter and whined, looking like the absolute most miserable person in the world.   
This was why Wade didn’t wake her up. Ever.  
When it was something that couldn’t be helped, no way of Wade taking the bad things away from Bea, the Merc couldn’t bear seeing her like this.

By the time Peter had changed her diaper and put her into her clothes for the day while he sang two of her favourite songs, she’d calmed down a lot. She still pouted and rubbed her eyes, but she didn’t cry anymore.   
While Peter made all of them breakfast, Bea clung to Peter and her eyes closed every now and again. During breakfast itself Bea was moody, but finished her portion of oatmeal and mushed fruit, and her milk. The moment Peter set her bottle down, he saw her eyes droop again and by the time they got into the car, Bea was fast asleep in her seat.   
“I feel bad for dragging her out this early,” Wade commented with a look into the rear view mirror.   
“You mean having me drag her out this early?” Peter joked, checking the straps on Bea's car seat once more before putting on his own seatbelt. Wade grinned and shrugged his shoulders, not feeling too bad about his weaknesses anymore. 

“Are you sure I shouldn't bring you to aunt May's?” Wade asked again when they stopped at the uni campus, but Peter just shook his head, taking Bea out of her seat. She was up again, but clingy as usual.   
“No, I'm fine, really. We're just gonna do some paperwork here, then I'll get the car from the Tower and we're off to home. Aunt May knows I'm by myself and if I need it, I can still go over. Or she visits us. But I'd like to try, I have to get it together at some point.”  
“Alright, babe. You got this,” Wade encouraged with a smile as he took Peter's backpack out of the trunk, halfway filled with things for Bea. He helped Peter put it on, then handed him Bea.  
“Send me lotsa picks from you cuties?”  
“Of course,” Peter whispered and smiled into the kiss that followed. Wade held them both for a long minute, then he kissed Bea on the cheek. She smiled, but snuggled up to Peter again, still a bit sleepy.   
“Imma miss you two. See ya in a bit,” Wade said and hugged them one more time. Peter lifted his head and kissed Wade's temple.  
“Be careful. Come back to us in one piece, okay?”  
“Promise.”

They watched as the older man got into the car and drove off to the Tower, where he'd stash his things and board the next jet to somewhere in the middle of nowhere where they suspected another base to be.   
“C'mon, baby, let's do some work,” Peter said and hugged Bea close, before turning and entering campus. Of course there were lots of stares because it was quite rare that people brought their kids to uni. Sure, some of the girls did, but Peter couldn't recall ever seeing a guy do it. Well, he told himself, this was maybe he was doing something for equality.   
They went to the library together and Peter exchanged a big stack of books with a new one, making his backpack heavy.   
“How about a snack before we head home? Would you like that?” Peter asked Bea on the way to the main building. She uttered some quiet noises, snuggling up to his chest again. “Don't be sad, baby. He's gonna be back, soon.”  
But Bea continued to sulk around and cling to Peter until he was done with all the paperwork, had handed in another essay and went off campus to walk to the subway station.   
When they were just two blocks away from the Tower, Peter got off the subway and went to a small café he knew. He ordered a coffee, a bagel and a big cookie to share with Bea. She loved the cream cheese on the bagel, but the cookie even more. Peter broke it in half and let her have it all by herself, which she happily nibbled on.   
“Feeling better?” he asked and smirked when Bea nodded, still chewing on the cookie. Peter quickly snapped a photo and added it to a message to Wade, along with one he'd made in the university's library. In that one, Bea was sitting in one of the chairs, Peter's glasses on her nose and the stack of Peter's books beside her on a table.   
Peter wrote “Research, then business lunch – Bea's a busy lady.”

After their snack, Peter went to the Tower and stopped by the restrooms on the first floor to change Bea's diaper and get the car keys from the reception, where Wade had left them for him. Bea was pretty happy by then, didn't even mind when Peter took her to the car again and strapped her in.   
When Peter sat down in the driver's seat, he opened the glove compartment to take out a different CD for Bea. There was a whole stack in there for her, but on top was a little post-it.   
“What's that?” Peter mumbled, taking it out to read what was written in neat cursive lettering.  
 _”You two have a great time, I'll miss ya like crazy. Love you <3 – Wade”_

Smiling, Peter stuck the note to his dashboard, then putting in a CD for Bea, playing some cheerful kid's songs for her. She wiggled left and right in her seat right away, her way of dancing. 

“We're gonna do this, huh? Bea-bear? We're gonna have a good time together,” Peter promised her and saw her look over to him. She smiled and Peter took that as a sign that they would indeed be just fine.

 

At the Avengers Tower, Wade stuffed his duffel bag onto the bottom shelf of his locker, then took out the tiny computer he had in it. On the inside of the locker door, he could flip down a little table to put the computer on while he took off his daytime clothes and geared up.   
He'd already put on the Deadpool costume at home, worn it under his clothes so it got nice and comfy – the material tended to be a bit rougher when cold, with body heat it got smooth.   
The computer automatically connected to several secure servers all over the world – avoiding everything StarkTech thank you very much – then showing Wade's personal darknet website.   
The spam folder on his mailbox was almost full and he deleted everything without even looking at the headers. Nothing of interest, as usual. Over the past half year, there was just one thing showing in his “news” section: the information that he'd not be doing anymore jobs under five million dollars. 

In his regular inbox, there were just two messages and Wade opened the first one. And deleted it soon after scanning the contents, because it involved ten marks at once. No, he didn't do these brawls anymore, his new Terms Of Service also stated that not only did he not work under five million, but he also didn't take any more than three marks at once – if the price was right, of course.   
Sighing, Wade send the second mail to his phone, since it sounded okay. He'd get back to whoever sent it once they were in the air and he could work undisturbed.  
Just a bit more, Wade thought to himself, then he'd be able to buy the rest of their house and look into a nice little place for his family, a bit outside the city maybe. 

“Wilson! You comin'?”  
“On my way!” Wade shouted into the hallway and grabbed some guns and his Katanas to strap onto his back.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fashionably late because my comp decided to be all like "nope" today, blackscreening on me. That's what friends with comp knowledge are for, now it's running again <3  
> Hope you like today's chap, see you next week, enjoy <3

On their third night alone, Peter found he'd handled everything pretty well. Bea was a little angel, and not that sad anymore. She was easy to distract still and Peter made sure to keep her busy with crafting, drawing or building something.   
During her first nap of the day he took care of all the household work and pre-cooked their lunch and dinner, then during her second nap he worked as fast as he could on his research and uni things, just like he did when Bea slept at night.   
He didn't hear much from Wade, but that wasn't unusual. But Peter made sure to send him lots of updates and photos of Bea.

Peter checked the baby monitor again, but Bea was sleeping soundly, sprawled out on her back in the crib. She looked adorable, her mouth slightly open and perfectly relaxed. Idly tapping on the space bar on his keyboard, Peter wondered whether she was dreaming and what her dreams might be about.   
Peter just wanted to concentrate on his work again when a message pinged into his inbox, making him jerk upright. It was from Stark and that fact alone made his heart clench. Luckily, it was just a few lines, easy to understand even for his worried mind.   
_Don't worry, everybody's well. Gonna be back at the Tower late tomorrow – probably after midnight. I need you in as soon as we're there, you gotta look at something._  
Peter furrowed his brows and opened a reply window.   
_”I can hardly leave Bea alone at night. Would it be okay if I get to the Tower in the morning? Can't it wait at all?”_  
The reply from Stark was immediate.  
 _”Bring her if you have to, this is pretty serious.”_  
Peter sighed, taking a note on a piece of paper nearby. He wouldn't drag Bea out in the middle of the night, so he would bring her to aunt May's before uni – which he did anyways whenever he had classes where attending was mandatory – and then pick her up the next day. That way, she could have a full night's sleep and was well rested and not stressed out by going somewhere or being out of schedule. 

Sighing again, Peter closed his documents for the day and packed up some of the gadgets he'd been developing – he never let stuff lay around anymore now that Bea could stand up and potentially be interested in all the shiny things on the desk.   
Since he was up, and admittedly slept worse when the bed was empty, Peter went to take out a duffel bag, already putting some clothes inside for himself and Wade. He'd probably pick his Merc up at the Tower and Wade would appreciate a change of clothes. He also had enough fresh laundry in the dryer to dress Bea for two days, so he folded everything right into the duffel, so he just needed to pack her diaper bag and they'd be ready to go. Peter smiled again when he thought about the room Bea had at aunt May's, cosy and filled with pictures and toys by now.   
Peter went to bed late that night, as usual when Wade wasn't there, but feeling good that he could spend some more time with his aunt and know that Bea was well taken care of while he worked. 

So after uni the next day, Peter brought some italian takeout from a place he knew aunt May loved, and they had a nice dinner together.   
“So you have to stay up all night?”  
“Yeah, I'm not doing too well with naps that late. I'll just wait for the call and then get going,” he replied and offered to refill aunt May's tea. She nodded and he poured some more into her cup.   
He'd told her that he was on a waiting list to use a very rare and very new machine at StarkTower's labs, and that the R&D team would call him should a slot open for him. 

 

At one A.M. on the dot, Peter received the call and put on a dark hoodie to climb onto the roof. Once up there, he took his Spiderman mask from the hoodie's pocket and put it on before shooting a web to a nearby tree and pulling himself up high.   
It felt great to use the webs again, to feel the cold night's air on his skin, piercing right through his clothes. Within minutes he was in the middle of New York city, soaring over the rooftops and feeling a lot younger and a lot more daring, laughing and shouting as he went. Peter was actually a little out of breath as he jumped down onto the Tower's helicopter landing pad, attaching a web and ascending down to an already open window. He tapped onto the glass and Stark actually startled.   
“I always thought the Spider thing was just a show,” he muttered, gesturing for Peter to take a seat in the lab he'd just entered. Apparently the Tower's AI had alerted Stark of Peter's entrance. 

“No, it's actually real and pretty handy. Faster than your elevators,” Peter teased and felt like he was in an exceptionally good mood. That quickly changed when he took a look around the lab, pulling off his mask to see better. “Is that why you've called me over? Where are the others?”

“Still in medical, some of them got pretty banged up. We'll meet in a few hours to debrief.”  
Peter nodded, stuffing his mask back into the pocket of his hoodie and glanced at the thing in the middle of the lab again.  
In the middle of the lab there was a platform with a cage on it. A real, metal barred cage. Peter realized it was in fact a human being inside and he felt a little of his hope dying right there that they'd ever get this situation under control.   
Those people kept children in cages.   
Also, _that_ child was at least six years old. 

“We can't open it,” Stark muttered as they both stood in front of the cage and stared at the sleeping child inside. “He's extremely aggressive, we had to sedate him with one of Barton's arrows.”  
Peter nodded, sighing and rubbing his eyes. At this point, after all they'd seen and were forced to do in those bases, there was barely anything that surprised him anymore, but he'd at least hoped for the worst to be over.   
“Any idea what the cage is made out of?”  
“No. Nothing we've encountered, I suspect it to be a mixture of different materials. But the real problem isn't the cage, but the lock.”  
Peter took a closer look to where Stark was pointing, eventually taking off his glasses to have clearer sight. Then he saw it – there were thin wires running all along the locking mechanism along the bars, so thin that they were almost invisible.   
“What do these do?”   
“No idea, yet. That's what I called you in for.”  
“You didn't test it, yet?” Peter asked with raised eyebrows, looking over at the billionaire. Stark just shrugged.  
“Got a company to run, remember? Also, I had that idea that I wanted to talk to you about. Let's take a set real quick,” he said and gestured back to one of the lab tables that had stools in front of it.   
Peter shot one last glance at the cage but the boy was still asleep, so he followed Stark over to the table. 

“Listen, we've got a haul of highly classified data from the base, as well as a ton of readings and samples from all over the place, so we're gonna have to assemble a research team. We'll use this lab here, SI provides all the necessary resources.”  
“And you thought of me for what exactly?” Peter asked in surprise, raising his eyebrows. Stark grinned at him, tapping the surface of the table in front of them to make about two dozen different photographs appear. They were all from a similar angle, all in very formal clothing, clearly belonging to a CV.   
“Come on, do you really think I don't know about your studies? I've got your latest works and uni credits in your file and don't even think I'd be stupid enough to pass up the opportunity to get you into the company. I want you to lead the team, pick some from our existing labs to work with,” the older man said, gesturing to the photos. 

Peter stared for a moment, not sure how even to react and more than a little taken by surprise by this. Part of him was currently screaming and thanking all the gods in the world for being so lucky, since there were so many young aspiring scientists all around the world signing up on long waiting lists for at least the _chance_ to apply. Another part of Peter was worrying if it would be morally okay for him to agree, because this was basically using his connections to get something great on his CV. If …  
“Will this show in my resume?”  
This made Stark laugh, but he nodded and opened a document on the table with a tap of his fingers.   
“It will, but officially it will say you worked in the R&D department, which technically isn't even a lie. But you'll have to sign a NDA of course, so in reality you'll be working in here with nobody beside my team and your team knowing what it's all about. You will have free range over all the tech, mind you.”  
Peter thought he'd faint when he thought about all the tech that was kept on the ten plus floors of R&D. Still, he had some reservations about it all … he was barely out of university and he should lead a team of scientists? It was not so much that he didn't trust himself to do it, but that he thought his future co-workers might highly doubt him. To some, Parker was still a big name in the science community.   
“But … why me? Not that I … wasn't flattered or anything …,” he mumbled and was met by a big sigh from the genius next to him.   
“Parker, really? You're one of the few people I trust with this – in part because of your daughter. But you're also already familiar with the cases and know your way around research. I know you're top of your class, you'd have flexible working hours and enough time to finish your studies on the side. And with you, at least I got someone who I know will put together a good team.”  
Peter looked to the big screen already displaying two dozen people within SI that were capable of working with at this mission. 

“I'm in,” Peter eventually said, thinking that this way, he'd at least be a help. Whenever he thought of taking on one of the missions for Wade, fighting again, going into a base again, cold sweat broke out on his back and palms and his heart started racing. There was no way he could do this again, he just wasn't able to. But now there was a way for Peter to work with the team again, and whatever reservations he might have didn't count.   
“Finally!” Stark exclaimed and clapped his hands. He took out a stylus pen and handed it to Peter, so the younger man could sign his contracts right there on the holographic surface of the table.  
“It's a timed contract, of course, but that's just a precaution for us both. Maybe I can get you into another, you know, less super secretive department after you've finished this one.”  
Peter thought about arguing that for a moment, mentioning that he'd rather look for a solid job for himself, but then again what better was there? This was Stark Industries, the best corporation for young scientists there was. The best for any kind of researcher.   
“Yeah, that sounds fair,” Peter said, trying not to grin, but really not able to help himself. Who of his classmates at uni could show off a place at SI? Nobody, that's who.   
Stark laughed quietly and watched how Peter signed the stack of documents in the virtual folder. As soon as everything was under wraps, Stark jumped up and motioned for Peter to follow him. 

“Then let's get to work. See what we can find out about the cage until the Team gets here,” he said and took a tablet and some device the same size as a toothbrush to run it around the lock mechanism.   
“How did you get this thing in here?” Peter asked and wondered where Wade was and why the Merc hasn't messaged him, yet. His last text had been almost ten hours ago, and Peter constantly checked his phone.   
“Because the whole place was wired to not let anything out alive. You'll see at the meeting, we've got a lot of other problems to cover for the next mission … this is also why we need a lab team to back us up.”  
“Sounds like you're focusing on the action now?”   
Peter went over and ran a cotton swab over the metal bars to test which kind of material they were dealing with. He contemplated scratching off a little bit for another sample, but then he found wires as thin as thread running around each bar.   
“Well, I'm not that old, yet. And between just Banner and me there's too much to research. We'd be holed up in the labs for weeks before we could find anything helpful, and we still have our own projects and the missions and hostages ...”  
“Seems like this issue gets bigger and bigger the more we uncover.”  
To that, Stark went silent for a moment, then nodded. It's been years since HYDRA had tried to take over SHIELD. But with that level of infiltration, it seemed like they'd have some more years to work until everything was clean.  
Peter frowned, because this was yet another point for not trusting SHIELD. When he thought about how they'd handled them, especially Bea, he got angry again.   
“Have I ever thanked you for getting Dr. Dearing?” Peter asked when he passed Stark and wandered around the cage, hoping to find a bit of wire that he could maybe clip off. No such luck, though, everything was wrapped tightly.   
“Yeah, you did. And she has, too,” Stark said with a smirk, obviously pleased with having _bought_ the doctor over from SHIELD, so that she would now treat mutant children exclusively at a StarkMedical facility just a few blocks from the Tower. From their last visit, Peter knew she loved it there, now that she didn't have the overly secretive agency on her back anymore, could decide and research more freely.   
Peter and even Wade liked her new offices as well, since everything looked much more friendly and more suitable for children than a government building.   
“I guess I made some people at SHIELD very angry that I bought her, and even more angry when I got the orphanage set up,” Stark mumbled innocently, a big smile on his face as he watched a model from the lock appear on a screen in front of him. 

Peter sent out a text to one of the ever present interns in the building, before joining the genius in front of the monitor.   
“Look at those cylinders. Something's attached to them and it looks like it will touch the back of the lock if we try to pick it,” Peter said, reaching up to enlarge the area he was talking about.   
“And I've never seen a fluid compartment in a lock before,” Stark added and highlighted another part, right under the bottom of the cylinders. It seemed like the rods attached to the cylinders would ultimately either make sparks against the metal casing or break the fluid compartment, leaking whatever was inside.   
“Could be acid. Or something worse.”  
Peter nodded, thinking of some substances that would kill both of them and anybody on the same floor or with access to the same air conditioning system within a minute. He didn't doubt that HYDRA had access to those, especially not after working in that military base.   
“So no drilling or sawing or picking the lock,” Stark concluded, making a note appear in the corner of the biggest screen in the lab, which would hold all their results.   
“We have to try and go around it somehow, but before we engage the other parts of the cage we should suspend the whole thing and encase the lock itself in a shock-proof material,” Peter said, feeling more and more in his element here as he added to Stark's note.   
“Not that I doubted myself, but I do see now that you really are the perfect choice for the mission's R&D.”  
Peter huffed and smirked, but did feel flattered. His inner geek still blasted party songs and threw glitter just because he was actually working with Tony Stark.  
“Then let's get to work. You do just that and I'll try and find out what the cage is made out of and if it has any weak spots.”   
Peter agreed and went on to a workbench, putting together a pulley system to suspend the cage with. 

 

At five A.M. the team was ready to debrief and they met in a lab room next to the one where the cage with the child was now dangling from the ceiling. It all looked very much like a scene from a torture horror movie, but it was actually the safest way to handle the thing, especially after what Peter and Tony had uncovered – they were really on first-name basis now and Peter was inclined to just sign on for the next thousand years to work in this magical land of science where everything was available. 

“Petey, sweetest spider of mine!” Wade greeted when he came into the room, already dressed in a jeans and hoodie, with his mask still on. Peter's heart immediately felt lighter and he hugged his lover close, kissing his cheek over the mask. “Whatcha doing here? Where's our cutie?”  
“She's with aunt May, I had to … uh … help out here.”  
“Ah, shit, with the cage, huh?”  
“Yeah.”  
Wade sighed again, deep and exhausted, and Peter wished they could just get home and into bed. Peter himself was feeling the weird schedule of the last few days creeping up on him, making him crave coffee and sugar.   
“Have you fucking seen where that cage was? Crazy.”  
“No, not yet. I guess I will, now. But I can already tell you it's not getting much better.”  
“Shit,” Wade sighed and took a seat at the table after getting himself a soda from a mini fridge in the corner of the room. Peter slipped the can from Wade's hand and took a sip, wishing he could have more coffee but aware that he'd already had too much during the last few days. 

“So, what have you been up to? Everything okay?” Peter asked and leaned closer, glad that they had a few more minutes before the meeting started. Wade placed an arm around the younger man's shoulders and pulled him close, kissing his temple.   
“Yeah, everything peachy. I was y'know, just collecting some long overdue cash.”  
Peter furrowed his brows, looking up at his lover.   
“Still?”  
“Well, when you're dealing with people making illegal deals it's not really a guarantee for on time payments …,” Wade said with a shrug and Peter hummed.   
“Guess so. - I'm just worried about you.”  
“Aw, you always are, you super cutie. And I love it,” Wade said and hugged Peter close with both arms, making them both laugh.   
“Besides, I got good news …,” Wade began, whispering into Peter's ear and kissing the spot just under it. It tickled with the Merc's mask still on and Peter giggled, reaching up to carefully push the fabric up over Wade's nose. “We're almost ready to get the rest of the house.”  
“What?!” Peter gasped, shivering when he felt Wade's hot breath brush against his skin when the older man laughed. Peter leaned back again, looking at Wade with wide eyes. “Are you serious?”  
“Yup. I'll start going through the offers this week.”  
Peter laughed again and threw his arms around Wade's shoulders, kissing and hugging him, feeling a bit dizzy with happiness, despite all the missions and work.   
“Whoa, what's all that for?”  
“Wade, I've got great news as well. I mean … it's not the best of circumstances, but I just signed on for a research team. To backup your missions.”  
Wade looked at him for a long moment and then a wide smile spread over his lips.   
“That's awesome, Petey. Like, you're gonna do all your smart work here? Like you always wanted.”  
“Just for the Hydra missions, but yeah. And ...”  
Peter looked through the opened door into the lab and hallway, but there was nobody in sight just yet – Stark had to take an important conference call. “I'll get the regular hourly wage that all SI scientists get … which is about triple the usual at other companies.”  
“Holy shit,” Wade whispered and leaned back into the chair with a grin. “Dude, we're gonna be so rich in no time. This is awesome, c'mere!”  
They laughed and kissed, cherishing this moment just between the two of them and allowing each other to forget about missions and rescues. 

“Get a room!”   
Peter sat back abruptly when Clint Barton walked into the lab, an ice pack slung around his right shoulder.   
“Uh, excuse you, we _are_ in a room, birdman,” Wade replied casually, stretching and placing his left arm around Peter in the process.   
“How the fuck can you be so chirpy after the last few nights?” the archer asked incredulously and rubbed a hand over his face. “I feel like I could sleep a week.”  
“It's … _the power of lo-ooooooooooove_!”  
Clint groaned and threw a pencil at Wade for his singing. The Merc laughed and just about dodged it before the sharpened tip could hit him square in the forehead. 

“I see you boys are in a good mood again.”  
They turned to see Wanda Maximoff walk into the lab, followed by her brother Pietro. They sat down with them and soon the rest of the Team joined them, gathering around the table when the good Captain and Stark entered at last. 

“Guess we're all pretty tired, so let's make this quick,” Stark began, activating a large screen behind him. “I'll play the footage from the latest mission for all of you, then we'll talk solutions,” he said and hit a button on the panel next to him.   
The lights in the room dimmed and the screen split into four parts, showing which team members entered the base.   
Wade's Deadpool symbol was in the lower right corner, the video showing him running through narrow hallways, firing from both his guns – with non-lethal ammunition that Stark's labs had developed for him. Most of them would just administer electric shocks, stunning their opponents for a while, but Peter knew Wade had also gotten a clip with tranquillizers. 

Everything went as planned, they could enter without much attention on them and deactivate the security cameras and sensors outside. For a few minutes, the videos ran on fast forward, because there wasn't much to see except the usual bad-guy-punching.   
When the video returned to normal speed, the others had just opened the doors to the main lab section, with Wade and Logan entering the most dangerous looking places first. They broke open double doors sealed with a big metal bar, then Logan punched one of the medical assistants unconscious and Wade steered towards the computers to take all hard drives.   
“The fuck is that? Should we take it?!” he yelled over to Logan and his line of sight flickered over to the middle of the lab, where the cage was standing. Wade pushed some random buttons on the keyboard to get the computers out of standby mode, but also activated the lights, showing that there was a child in the cage.   
Both Wade's and Logan's videos showed that they were staring at the child, then sighed.   
“I don't know why I'm even surprised still, bub,” Logan grumbled and raised an arm to use his claws on the cage. The next moment something exploded next to him and he flew through the air, his video alternating between showing the floor and the ceiling.   
“Hey, who's using bazookas indoors! That's a no-no!” Wade yelled, the quip mostly used to disguise that he was turning the computers sideways and ripped them open, tearing out the hard drives to stuff them into his pouches. 

“Stop right there!” a doctor yelled running towards Wade and grasping blindly onto a metal tray, taking a handful of scissors and scalpels. Wade backed up a bit to have some room for taking out one of his guns.   
“How 'bout fuck you?” Wade muttered as the doctor charged at him. Wade motioned for a kick, but stumbled over something, cursed, and suddenly the man in the white jacket was on top of him, stabbing scissors and scalpels into his body. Wade yelled, and Peter could hear it wasn't only pain – most of it was actually fear, maybe because he remembered the last time items like these were used on him. 

Wade fell down next to the cage, cursing at the doctor and pulling the scissors out of his arm. They clattered to the floor, blood soaked and with a visible dent in the blades from how hard they hit the bone. The doctor ran over to a control panel to hastily push some buttons.   
A crack sounded when Wade tried to get up, and he cursed again, stating that a broken ankle was no fun. That exact moment they all heard one of his swords being slid out of it's sheath on his back. The Merc turned with a gasp, wanting to say something but being interrupted. 

On his camera, they all saw the little boy reach an arm through the bars of his cage, Wade's Katana in one hand, whipping it through the air.   
Peter realized that it must have been him who hurt Wade's foot, maybe hit it with something, maybe just grabbing and twisting it a a weird angle.   
On screen, the razor sharp blade of the sword cut right through Wade's torso and he stilled, while the boy pulled it free and began downright stabbing him with it, over and over, until Wade collapsed in a puddle of his own blood.   
There was about a minute of just blood dribbling seeping onto the concrete floor in Wade's video feed, then he moved again when one of the others called him. Logan was the first at his side, pulling out the Katana from where it was stuck in Wade's back at an odd angle, jumping out of reach of the boy just in time. 

The upper two videos showed Pietro and his sister Wanda all but ripping out all computers they could find, placing them into a metal container they'd salvaged along the way, probably to hold laundry or trash. They stuffed in whatever they found, including handfuls of flash drives from a desk, all kinds of paper documents and even the contents of a shredder. Not very stealthy, but it was certainly one way to do it. 

The Captain and Iron Man swooped into action then, entering the base after rendering all attacking forces incapable.   
“There are more rooms in the lower levels, from here on it is probably all hostages!” Logan called when he was just trying to rip out a heavy double door with Wade. Both men had to use all their mutant strength and even then there was just a dent in the metal. They tried again, making loud, creaking sounds, only to be interrupted by a computerized voice.   
_”You're entering without permission. Elimination sequence activated. Starting first elimination blast in 10 … 9 ...”_  
“Pull, pull!” Wade yelled and just in time Cap barrelled through the lab, ran right into the doors shield-first, and the three men tumbled into the next hallway. The pipes that ran along the walls started emitting hissing and rumbling sounds and they ran as fast as they could, opening all doors on their way and shouting for backup.   
When they met the first few women, there was no time for a chat, so Wade ended up pulling his guns and threatened the women, so that they would run out into the hallway, where Logan would usher them up and out of the base. On a different part of the screen, Peter saw SI security personell catching the women outside and quickly manoeuvring them into the holding cells of the jet.   
There was a lot of yelling and crying involved, but ultimately this was the best way to save as many people as possible.   
The team worked hard and as fast as possible, but they only managed to clear out the upper most floor, until JARVIS spoke over the comm, alerting everyone that a lethal dose of gas was detected in the air. Just moments later, thankfully enough for the Team to get out, the base blew up in a massive fireball. 

Back in the jet, they discovered that Iron Man had taken the cage with the boy in it, but they had to sedate him because as they'd now seen on Hawkeye's records, the boy had tried to take weapons, scratch and trip people. He even screamed and hissed at everybody getting too close to the cage.  
Tony shut down the video footage then, the lights in the lab turning on again.   
“All in all we could get ten women out of there, and – including the boy – four children,” he paused for a moment. “We've still got a team on site trying to get through the debris, we estimate around … seventy casualties.”  
A stunned silence followed and many of the team members bowed their heads. This was an incredibly high number, probably making them all reconsider the sheer size of that mission. Then again, they had saved some innocent people, destroyed one more base, ended the suffering there. It wasn't the best possible ending, but it was something.  
“The hostages are all in medical right now, so our most urgent concern is the boy in the cage. He doesn't talk and is overall very aggressive. And seems to know how to use weapons or at least isn't shy to use them.”  
“But as long as he's in that cage we don't really have to worry, right? Can't we just get him to a shrink?” Hawkeye asked from the other end of the table, balancing a pencil on his finger.   
“He's still a child. He can't stay in that cage,” Wanda argued and Wade nodded, reaching over to poke the pencil and make it fall from Clint's finger.   
“Also, we don't know what that cage can do, like, I don't think it's just decorative. It's Hydra. I ain't want none of that shit anywhere near.”  
“Yeah, right, we didn't quite phrase it that way but Mr. Parker and I did some research,” Tony said, gesturing towards the younger hero. Peter cleared his throat, motioning for some of the cage's stats to appear on the big screen.  
“I guess …,” Peter mumbled and saw Stark nod out of the corner of his eye. “I guess it's either us or him. Or both. The lock is wired to release a lethal dose of toxic fluid or mist, which might just reach inside, killing the child … or outside as well, reaching whoever tried to open it. There's also a detonator in there, which I guess is in case someone tries to just break the cage. It'll explode the moment we attach a saw or laser.”  
“The next problem: the moment we get this child out of there, we have a new threat at out hands. He doesn't speak and at this point we're not even sure if he can communicate at all. He's volatile and aggressive without reason,” Stark mentioned and opened a live video connection to a lab where the cage was stored. There was a bowl with food and a plastic bottle of water within easy reach outside of the cage – Peter ordered one of the interns to bring it for the boy – but the child inside was asleep. “We had to sedate him because he just wouldn't stop trying to attack our staff.”  
“So what are we gonna do with him? And the cage,” Logan growled from the corner of the room, where he leaned against the wall with a very tired look on his face.   
“We have to get him out of there,” Peter said and made sure his tone left no room for arguing.  
“But after that, we'll have to keep him in a secure lab in here. Bruce, I hope it's okay if we borrow your place?”  
“Perfectly fine. I'd rather lend you Hulk's room than know the boy is at SHIELD.”

“Good, then Peter, Bruce and I will keep working on opening the cage and taking that boy to the Hulk's room. All the others are dismissed until the next mission brief, get some sleep,” Stark said and everyone got up to leave. All except Wade.  
“Don't you wanna go to aunt May's? I took some fresh clothes for you,” Peter offered, but the Merc just shook his head with a smile.   
“No, I'll stay with you. You guys need a strong, regenerating hand for when that brainwashed brat wakes up. I'll just watch you do smart stuff – there's gotta be some minesweeper on those computers, right?”  
Stark rolled his eyes, but didn't argue with Wade. Bruce just handed Wade a tablet mentioning the bigger computers in the labs were for work only and didn't hold any games. 

 

The three of them worked for some more hours, finally finding out what the cage's rods were made out of – a complicated method was used to twist two metals together under intense heat, then everything was coated with four different alloys, with the wires to the explosives running through the last alloy.   
They decided to melt off the outer alloy very carefully, on four different parts on two of the rods – it would be a tight fit but they could get the boy out like this. The rods were the furthest away from the lock, so that the work on it wouldn't shake the fluids hidden in the lock.   
Once the wires were openly visible – green and silver twisted together, looking quite ominous – the three consulted stills from the videos again.   
“Look, what?s that? It's not just standing on this block for decorative purposes,” Peter said, carefully outlining the step underneath the cage with a virtual pen, marking a red line around it.  
“There're the clasps attached as well, I guess those are just to hold it in place, but look here,” Stark mumbled, enlarging the picture and gesturing to black lines that ran very precisely along the clasps.   
“Wires?”  
“We cut off all electronics just after that shot … could be that it was a power source,” Bruce said, comparing the time stamp on the video to the one in his data from when he'd assisted the mission. 

They all turned from the monitor to the cage again and Wade looked up, watching them as Stark held a book-sized device in front of it, while Peter and Bruce gathered different tools.   
“No EMF readings. I'm suspecting they're contact-activated, so let's not use any power tools,” he mentioned, so Bruce put one of the tools away again.   
“So we could just … break the cage?” Peter asked for clarification, because that seemed awfully easy. Then again, it probably only designed to withstand breaking through the lock or with tools, so it might as well work.   
“We can only try … I could get an armor in here and we insulate it first, then I can use it to bend at least one of the rods.”

“Or you could let the cool guy help the nerds!” Wade suddenly announced behind them, eyeing the cage. “There's like, no current on this, right? Like, I've been getting fried before, but I didn't like it.”  
As he spoke, he poked one of the rods with one finger as if testing it. Neither Banner nor Tony had any objections, so Peter motioned for Wade to go ahead and try to bend open the cage.  
“I'll try to pull the boy out as soon as I can, and web him up. Be careful,” Peter whispered and Wade just hummed in agreement. The Merc wrapped his hands around two of the rods and as carefully as he could, pulled them apart, already bending the metal slightly. None of the motions sensors they'd attached went off just yet, so Peter gave him the go ahead.   
Wade pulled again, the rods deforming more now, the sensors not lighting up. 

Suddenly a terrible creaking noise made everyone jump and Wade cursed when one of the rods broke off from the top of the cage. There was a beep and then all of them heard a hissing sound.   
“Get down!” Wade yelled, jumping back and gladly letting himself be pulled further when Peter shot a web at his back. 

In the blink of an eye the cage was encased in fire, until alarms started to blare throughout the labs, security doors on the hallways closed and the sprinkler system activated, shooting foam onto the ducts in the ceiling.  
Peter heard Tony shout something over the noise of the fire extinguishers, but he couldn't make out the words. Heavy steps led away from them as Peter pulled himself and Wade under a workbench.   
“That's not good,” the Merc said, his voice gurgling and blood dripping from his lips. Peter gasped when he found one of the cage's rods stuck in his lover's chest.  
“Should I … pull it out?”  
“Please,” Wade wheezed, leaning back against the wall behind the workbench when Peter grabbed the end of the rod. It was very hot and the ends were tapered out as if the whole cage had just been ripped to shrapnel. Peter looked at Wade, who nodded, then the young hero gave one strong pull to the rod, ripping it out of Wade's chest.   
He cursed and groaned and spat out so much blood that Peter was afraid he couldn't breathe.   
“Oh, good, better, thanks,” Wade heaved out after a moment, and Peter noticed that the alarms had died down and the fire extinguishers weren't blasting foam anymore. 

Peter gestured for Wade to stay put under the desk, and peered out into the lab to look in the direction of the cage. All that he could see were pieces of metal, but to his surprise the cage hadn't just exploded, it looked more like it had caved in.  
“You see anything?” Wade asked from the corner, where the massive wound in his chest just stopped bleeding. The Merc was picking pieced of fabric out of it and ultimately just took off his shirt.   
Peter just wanted to answer no, when he saw a small figure crawl out from under the debris. 

The kid got up, looking mangled and burned and just terrible, but when Peter wanted to jump up and reach for him, he saw that it wasn't actually blood seeping out of the boy's skin. It was a purple goo, turning darker all the way to black on the most serious of injuries. The boy's gleaming orange eyes swiped the room briefly, then locked to Peter and Wade, who both stared.   
Wade's body gave an involuntary jolt when his sternum aligned and healed again. The boy seemed to take this as an aggression and charged at Wade, shouting and showing a set of razor sharp teeth.   
Whatever this just was, it was far from a human boy.   
Wade pushed Peter out of the way and pulled one of his guns, aiming for the boy's head.   
“Wade, no!” Peter yelled, shooting some webs as fast as he could, at Wade's gun and at the boy. The gun's barrel sealed, making Wade unable to fire it. The next round of webs went onto the boy, pulling his arms behind his back and binding his wrists. Peter shot again, coming closer now, making the boy fall down into a puddle of purple liquid when the webs bound his ankles and secured him to the lab floor. 

“So, that's new,” Wade mumbled and held his gun out to Peter with a frown. The hero tugged off the webs carefully, looking around for Stark or Banner, but none of them were to be found.


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Right on time today, that's gotta be an achievement. After today's chapter, things are going to change a bit, not just for our boys, but ultimately for the better, so stay tuned ;) I hope you're all doing well, see you next week!   
> Enjoy <3

After a minute of stunned staring from Peter and Wade, Tony came back into the lab, out of breath and telling them they couldn't use the Hulk's room anymore.  
“The explosion kind of scared the green out of Bruce,“ he muttered, typing on a panel nearby to look through some graphs.   
“Isn't there anywhere else we could bring him? A lab, maybe?” Peter asked, looking down at the boy with guilt burning inside him. He didn't want to do this, tie up a child. But they had no other choice.   
“I just sent a team downstairs to clear out a small lab room that is almost never used,” Stark said with relief in his voice, probably glad that they did have means to keep the boy and didn't have to resort to asking SHIELD.   
“But he's going to have a bed, right? And … someone to look after him?”  
“Is everybody like this once they're parents?” Stark asked when he rolled his eyes, and Wade grinned.  
“Probably. I thought the same,” he admitted, and Peter smiled at him.   
“Yeah, we'll get him a bed and someone to look after him. He's going-”

A very urgent sounding buzz interrupted the genius.   
_”Mr. Stark, a call from the on-site team,_ ” JARVIS informed them and Tony nodded, a screen appearing in front of him to show the insides of a small jet. A man leaned into the picture, wearing a construction helmet and a bright orange vest over a thick jacket. He held a bundle in his hands, the bulky gloves almost obscuring the rough blanket. 

_“Mr. Stark! They're alive!”_ he yelled over the noise of the jet.  
“Who's alive?”  
 _“Two of the children, Sir! We just found two babies and they're alive!”_  
“Are you taking them to medical?”   
_“Yes, we've already called in and they are ready, but aside from some scratches they both seem fine,”_ the agent said, a smile still on his face.   
“Alright, good work, thank you for informing me.”  
 _“Of course, Mr. Stark.”_

The call ended, leaving them in silence for a moment.   
“That's good news, rigth?” Wade eventually asked, looking over at the two scientists.   
“Yeah,” Peter slowly said, glad that the babies were alive, but …  
“That means they have an extraordinarily high healing factor. Or they were very lucky, but I doubt that, since the team was working four floors underground, everything down there is debris.”  
“It could be that they were in some kind of pocket, or that their cribs fell and protected them,” Peter argued, which of course wouldn't explain why they survived the explosion that killed 70 people all around.

“The boy had something heal him, too,” Peter quietly added after a moment, Wade raising his hands.   
“That was nothing like my stuff, I swear.”  
“Yeah, no, I saw that. But that would be a property they focused on, I would think. And a lot of mutants have it.”  
“The gene should be easy to locate once you've found it in one person. You basically have the genome's GPS data and just need to pick it out from your host's DNA – or activate the recessive genome in some other mutant's DNA.”  
Peter looked over to Stark, both of their minds running a mile a minute.   
“So is it safe to assume that they found away to create healing factors?”  
“At least in some children. Not all of the ones in the orphanage have it,” Tony replied, glancing at a different screen when a message opened.  
“But a high percentage,” Peter urged.  
“Higher than occurs naturally,” Stark added, typing on the screen, maybe still communicating with the agent who was on his way to medical with the babies.  
Peter nodded, biting his lip and thinking of all the work they'd have to do if they at least wanted a chance to be on the same level as Hydra when going into the next mission. The best outcome would be being several steps ahead of those bastards.   
“We need to go through the hard drive's data,” Peter said and Stark held up a finger.   
“That's why I hired you. But first, we'll get the boy to the lab, it's ready. Then I'll get you something so you can work whenever you like.”

That something Tony promised was a slim laptop, StarkTech of course, which automatically and very securely connected to SI's own servers, allowing Peter to work from home. Actually only from home, because the computer wouldn't even boot in any other location than the Tower.  
After they left the boy at the Tower's lab, they hadn't heard much, but Tony assured them that there really wasn't any progress. He seemed physically alright and he ate and drank, but he didn't talk or do anything, really. They even gave him toys and crayons, but it seemed like he didn't know what to do with it. Peter checked up on him through the security cameras in the room, that only he and a few others could access.  
It made Peter sad to think about the poor boy, about what could have happened to him that made him behave like this. It also made him work harder to go through the hard drives, trying to find out more about how the bases operated and worked with each other. 

“Hey worky-spidey, we're back!”  
Peter smiled when he heard Wade in the hallway, saving his progress quickly to get out of the office area. The past few days he'd almost only worked, save for going to uni for one last exam.   
It actually felt a bit surreal to Peter that he was so close to graduation, and he didn't find much time to think about it. Between his own work – which already pretty much paused – his work for SI and the time he wanted and needed to spend with his family, Peter rarely found any more time to just ponder.   
“Welcome home,” he greeted his sweethearts and stopped Bea from wandering off. He took off her jacket and shoes, then also her sweatshirt because it had a very distinct ketchup stain – that Peter decided to left uncommented. “How was your shopping trip?” he asked Bea and she smiled, but said nothing, as usual.

“Epic. I got us super awesome matching outfits for your big day,” Wade said happily and showed Peter the contents of the shopping bag. “Bea picked out this shirt for me and then we found a dress for her.”  
He pulled out a dark red dress shirt, and then a little dress for Bea.   
“Oh, that’s so cute!” Peter laughed when he saw the red ruffled skirt and black, tank-top styled top part that came with a matching black satin cardigan. He could already see Bea wearing it, running around with the red skirt flowing around her.   
“Right? But I decided it missed some bling, so I’ll add some.”  
“Some what?”  
“Bling. You’ll see.”  
Wade put the dress back into the bag with a mysterious smile, and Peter laughed quietly. The older Bea got, the more creativity she brought up in Wade. Peter was pretty sure she'd be the best dressed baby at the ceremony.   
“You excited, yet?” Wade asked while he went over to the kitchen to prepare a sippy cup of water for Bea. By now she could hold her own cup, but she wasn't all that good at drinking from it, yet, so they always had her sit down.  
“Actually, I think I'm more relieved? To be done with it, finally,” Peter admitted, taking an apple from a bowl in the kitchen and cutting it up.   
“Well, that sounds peachy. Everything okay?”  
“Yeah, I'm fine, it's just a lot on my plate with uni and SI and my own research.”  
“Ah, well then it is good that you're done, soon. And I can go around bragging with not only having a cute daughter, but also a super sexy doctor husband. - _Oh my gawd, Petey_ , I'm gonna be on the next season of Real Housewives!”  
Peter laughed at that, having missed Wade's humor. They barely had some time to talk during the day, only an hour or so every evening in bed – if they did actually talk then and not just kiss until they were dizzy. He went over to the play are and placed a plastic bowl with apple slices on the tiny drawing table for Bea.   
She went over to investigate right away, and took a slice, signing thank you with the other hand.   
“You're welcome, baby,” Peter said and kissed her head, then he had to get back to his work.  
Wade had to do some more chores – Peter actually felt a bit sorry for leaving so much for the older man – so while he worked, Peter had an eye on Bea.   
He grinned when he looked over and saw that she was stacking her blocks on the little step that led to the office area, building a wall of color next to Peter's desk. Once she came over to offer him a bite of her apple, smiling happily when Peter took it.

Peter systematically opened one drive after the other, sorting through the data he found, and somehow ended up singing one of Bea's children's songs while he worked. She loved it, waving her arms and then pointing to the computer when the song was over.   
“Alright, let's see,” Peter mumbled and opened his web browser, quickly finding a compilation of Disney songs. It was a little weird to work to, but as long as Bea had her fun – and she had, since she danced through her play area – he wouldn't complain.

By the time Wade had vacuumed the bedrooms, dusted everything and changed the covers in Bea's crib, the music had faded out.   
“Time to get a certain baby clean!” Wade said, smirking at Bea's little wall next to the office, but still telling her they'd clean up now. She looked around for a moment, maybe trying to argue, but when Wade started putting her building blocks into a crate, she picked some up to help him.   
Together they cleaned up the play area and Peter went into the next hard drive, looking through the files, wincing when he saw just how many were broken.

“I already did some of the laundry, so you two can take your time with the bath,” he said distractedly, transferring all the broken files to get a closer look at the coding and maybe fix it. “I can also start dinner.”  
“Nah, honey, I'll do dinner later, you go and be smart 'n stuff,” Wade argued and was off to the bathroom with Bea a bit later. Peter guessed that Wade wasn't in the tub with Bea – he didn't like that – so when he heard the little girl laugh it was probably because she'd drenched Wade's shirt again. 

He'd just completed one full hard drive, marking ten for the whole day, when small footsteps sounded through the hallway.   
“Bea, get back here!” Peter heard Wade shout from the bathroom and looked into the hallway only to see a completely naked baby running out into the living room. He laughed and Bea laughed with him, happy with herself for having escaped Wade.   
“Girl, it’s time to put some pants on, come on!” Wade shouted, laughing all the while, chasing after her while she was headed towards her play area. Thankfully she wasn't all that fast yet and Wade could catch her and carry her back to the bathroom hanging over his arm, Bea laughing and squealing.   
“I know, I don't like to wear pants, either, but we gotta do it, Bea. We gotta do it!”  
Peter giggled when he heard Bea laugh again and he guessed that Wade was tickling her or something. 

A few minutes later Peter grinned while typing, because he heard small footsteps approach the office. Tiny hands patted onto the one step that led to the office corner and then Bea was next to him, smiling sweetly and looking like an angel. She wore pink pyjamas with white cat shadows on it.   
“What is it, sweetie?”, Peter asked and saved his work with a tap on the keyboard. Bea signed for eating and Peter gestured to the table.   
“Be right there,” he said and followed Bea to her high chair. She pointed to it and waited for Peter to lift her up and strap her in. She even grabbed her spoon that Wade had put there for her, and hit the table with it, letting them know that she was ready to eat.   
“Almost ready, baby!” Wade called. He was preparing a simple pasta dish and had a sippy cup with water ready for Bea, which Peter brought over to her.

“Sit down, cutie, I'll get the food over to you two,” Wade said with a relaxed smile on his face and Peter once again noticed just how well he looked lately, not just with his skin, but in general.   
A few minutes later Wade was putting plates with pasta and very artful swirls of marinara sauce on the table, and even grated them all some fresh cheese on top.   
Peter cut up Bea's noodles into small pieces, then adjusting her bib. He would still feed her if he needed to, but she insisted nowadays on trying on her own. Some of the food even made it into her mouth.   
“So, dear husband, how's work going?” Wade asked, making Peter grin. It was no secret that Wade absolutely loved those family moments.  
“Slow, but good. Most of it is still me trying to sort out the data. Repair corrupted files. I've given my input on some of the applicants, so SI's HR Team is doing all the interviews and stuff. In about a month I can start working with – my – new team.”  
“Aw, my handsome doctor husband is gonna have his own team. - I'm tellin' ya, I'd be perfect for Real Housewives.”  
“You'd be the best of them all.”  
“Aw, you makin' me blush!” Wade giggled, before he reached over to help Bea with a few spoonfuls of noodles. She didn't mind, but still held onto her spoon. 

“So … you think it's good data? Useful stuff?” Wade asked quietly after a while, and Peter nodded right away, not having forgotten that Wade had personally retrieved some of that from the last base.   
“Yeah, from what I could see. There are some lists of chemicals, and lab research. I'm hoping it's got something to do with genes. Also, I haven't gotten to data from any kind of transaction or maybe sales, yet, but I hope they'll be somewhere.”  
“To use for connections.”  
“Yeah. Or just to find out how they get their resources from point A to point B without anyone ever getting suspicious.”  
Wade nodded slowly, picking up another forkful of noodles and chewing slowly.   
”I betcha there’s human trafficking involved. There’s no way they could abduct that many women, or the rise in missing people cases would be noticed,” he mused after a moment, and Peter smiled, because Wade might say whatever he wanted about his brain, but he was actually a very smart man.   
“Yeah, I thought so, too. I have no doubts that there’s several illegal businessed involved, maybe they’re even using drug dealer routes to transfer the samples.”  
“Hm ...,” Wade hummed in agreement, then suddenly putting on a carefree face.”Let’s talk happy thngs: Bea and I got to pet a nice doggy today, that was great!”  
Peter grinned, glad for the change of topic, because even if those cases dominated their work life at the moment, it wasn’t really anything to talk about around the baby or at the dinner table. 

 

Not even two weeks later it was finally time for Peter’s gradiation ceremony.   
The morning had been a rush, because he had to leave before his family to get to uni and take care of the paperwork. He arrived just in time at the office building in his pitch black suit and red tie – Wade had picked that one out for him, insisting it would make him look very smart and official. 

The ceremony was held outside, because there were just too many guests and attendants to fit anywherre. A big stage was set up with rows upon rows of chairs in front of it.   
An orchestra played for the graduates, who all got to sit in the first few rows, then the director of the university held a – rather long – speech.   
When it was time for the diplomas, groups of people were called up on the stage. Peter found himself to actually be nervous, but in a good way. When he got called up, he looked around carefully, smirking when he spotted Wade in the crowd. His smile widened when he saw Bea sitting on her father’s shoulders, waving both arms in the air like Wade probably told her to do. She wore her black and red dress, but the top part was now glittering with black sequins. She even wore a matching headband with a bow. 

When his name was called, Peter looked up and shook hands with the professors and the director. He felt a rush of pride and relief when he finally held his diploma in hands, something he's worked so hard for, something that would open him so many doors – well, already had, considering he worked with SI.   
The university had of course heard about that so Peter was amongst the very few graduates who got honoured again for having made it into renowned companies. 

They got applauded and pictures were taken of all the graduates and then a few of groups that had worked together. After that, friends congratulated each other before heading down to find their loved ones in the crowd. 

Peter of course had no problems finding his family, Bea waving for him and looking so wonderful. Wade wore that red shirt that Bea had chosen for him, with very nice black dress shoes, but black jeans instead of dress pants, and his jacket wasn’t butoned. It suited him very well.  
Even aunt May was dressed in a dark red blouse, making Peter realize that Wade had gotten all of them to match.   
“Well, if that isn’t _doctor_ Parker. Congratulations,” Wade greeted him and they briefly kissed. Peter grinned and showed off his diploma before hugging aunt May, who congratulated him as well, tears glistening in her eyes.  
“Oh, look at the little princess,” Peter said and finally reached out to Bea, who was trying to get off Wade’s shoulders all the time. Wade lifted her and gave her to Peter with a proud grin. “You’re such a cutie, so beautiful in your dress. Can Daddy have a kiss?” he asked and smirked when Bea held onto his neck and kissed him on the cheek.   
“Peter?”  
He turned around, Bea still in his arms, clinging to his neck, and spotted a woman with her red hair done up in a complicated style.   
“Yeah?”  
“Peter Parker?”  
“Yeah,” he replied, furrowing his brows. He looked at the woman's smile, feeling recognition tug at him, but leaving him just not quite able to put a finger on it. He was sure he knew this woman. It took him a moment but when he found a matching memory in his head he gasped.

“Mary Jane?!”  
“Yes! Wow, haven’t seen you in ages!” she said and laughed at his baffled face.   
”Yeah, it’s been ... forever. What are you doing here?” Peter asked and caught Bea’s band before she could pull on his tie.   
“I’m here with my fiancè, his sister just graduated ... and you’re in company, too, I see,” Mary Jane said sweetly and stepped up to look at Bea. The little girl leaned back into Peter a bit, but reached out her hand to have Mary Jane shake it gently.   
“Yeah, that’s Bea ... uh, my daughter. And that’s my husband, Wade. Oh and I’m sure you remember my aunt May,” he introduced everybody and Mary Jane greeted them.   
“Of course I remember! Wow, how time flies, huh? But you’re sure faster than me, with such a gorgeous daughter.”

They talked for a few more minutes, then a sophisticated looking man called Mary Jane and she hurried off toward him.  
“So, you’ve ... dated her?” Wade said quietly and Peter was sure he would’ve said something else if it wasn’t for Bea and aunt May there. The younger man grinned, smoothing the ruffles on Bea’s skirt that hung over his arm.   
“Yeah, in high school. Long before I knew what a great husband I could have.”  
The worried look around Wade’s eyes faded and he grinned brightly.   
“You charming spider, you,” he muttered and leaned in for a kiss, but Bea clung to Peter’s neck instead, getting in between them. So Wade just kissed Bea’s cheek instead, making her giggle.   
“She looks so great with her dress,” Peter commented and looked to aunt May, who smirked.   
“It turns out Wade is a really fast learner. I only had to show once him how to attach the sequins and he did the rest himself, and look how pretty the dress is!” she praised, smiling at Bea, who cuddled up to Peter.   
“She's the cutest girl around,“ Peter replied, kissing his best girl's chubby cheeks, making her laugh. 

After they'd mingled a bit with Peter's friends from uni, and they got lots and lots of comments on how cute Bea looked, they went to a nearby restaurant where Wade had booked them a table. Which must've been months ago as Peter noticed, because the room was completely filled.   
„Well, of course I called early. This is a big day for you – us, too, I guess – so I wanted us to have a good time,“ the older man said with a smile, thanking the waiter who just took away one of the chairs to replace it with a high chair.   
„Thank you, honey,“ Peter whispered and leaned over to give his lover's cheek a quick kiss.   
„You're most welcome, _doctor_ Parker.“  
„I'm gonna hear that for a while, aren't I?“ Peter laughed and Wade nodded right away, before turning to get some things for Bea out of her bag.   
„Of course. Gotta brag a bit, c'mon. You worked hard.“  
„I did,“ Peter agreed with a sigh, feeling that realization was slowly sinking into him, that he'd actually made it. He leaned back and watched as Wade put Bea into the high chair, a pretty expensive looking piece made of dark wood, matching the other chairs around.   
Wade gave Bea a sippy cup with water and secured a bib around her neck, The waiter even brought some paper and crayons for her along with the menues for the adults. They all ordered food a while later and enjoyed the delicious meal together, even having champagne to celebrate.   
It was a wonderful family dinner, even leaving them with some nice pictures for their album, after aunt May had insisted not Peter but one of the waiters took the photo so that they all were in the picture. 

After dinner, they drove aunt May home and promised to come by on the weekend for some family time.   
“I can't be without that little smile for too long,” she said, kissing Bea's cheeks when they said their goodbyes. Peter smirked and hugged his aunt, promising they'd be there. She waved them and went inside, while Wade waited until the door closed, because he always made sure she was safely inside the house first.   
The rest of the evening Peter and Wade spent some time with Bea in her play area, building a castle out of blocks, then brought her to bed with her usual night time ritual.   
„Goodnight, cutie,“ Peter whispered as he turned on her night light, sending slowly flowing blue and green lights across the ceiling from the aquarium toy.   
„Sweet dreams,“ Wade said just before closing the door behind both of them. 

„And now to you, doctor Parker,“ Wade began and Peter smirked, but shook his head.   
„No, now to the bathtub. Where I will soak for a while,“ he said, but left it sounding a bit like a question, because he didn't just want to ditch his husband. But Wade just shrugged and gestured to the bathroom door.   
„Sure, knock yourself out. Get all nice and wet. And relaxed. M'sure we could use that somehow.“  
Peter giggled, shaking his head, but still going into the bathroom. He offered that Wade could just join him, but the Merc would rather do some more household chores so they could all enjoy a stress-free family breakfast in the morning. 

 

Later that night Peter hugged the pillow to his chest tightly, panting like a drowning man. It turned out that Wade had kept his promise to make use of Peter being relaxed after his bath. 

“Good?” Wade asked behind him, slowly, so so slowly, sinking into the younger man's body.   
“Yes,” Peter whispered, shaking all over and close to just shouting, but knowing he really shouldn't if they wanted to have some more alone time.   
Wade slowly pulled out again, almost all the way, stopping briefly before sinking back in. It was crazy, so slow, making Peter feel like he was burning. He was dizzy and noticed absently a bead of sweat rolling down his temple. He waited, on edge, for Wade to finally start thrusting into him, taking him, making him feel it.   
But no, the older man just continued the torture, moving so slow, that Peter thought he'd lose his mind sometime soon. The hero whimpered, a shiver running up and down his spine when Wade started pushing back in, making him feel every inch.   
“Oh, I know,” the Merc cooed, firm hands still holding Peter's hips, but rough thumbs stroking over Peter's skin. Wade himself sounded out of breath, sighed everytime he was fully seated, only to pull back out again. “I know you … want it hard … dontcha … my sweet spider …”  
“Yes,” Peter whimpered, this time unable to hold back, moaning into the pillow. “Please,” he added, muffled by the cushion.   
“Not yet,” Wade huffed, his voice raspy, dark but warm. “Not until you're close. I want you to feel it.”  
Peter groaned, feeling lightheaded and on the edge, writhing on the soft sheets. He endured a few more slow thrusts, in, out, in, out, trying to calm himself, but to no avail. Each time Wade sank back into his body, he would roll his hips just so, the tiniest bit of movement so deep inside Peter, leaving him gasping. 

Shaking all over and close to tears, Peter whimpered again.   
“I can't ...”  
“You can,” Wade insisted, so gentle despite holding Peter's hips in an iron grip to keep him from pushing back. He kept up his torture, having Peter bite the pillow and moan desperately, providing only a little soothing rubs of his thumbs over the younger man's skin.   
Eventually Peter just gave up with trying to move or clench around Wade, and just took it all. After another few strokes, Peter felt Wade brush over his prostate every time. He bit his lip, trying to keep quiet when he felt his skin break out in goosebumps, heat pooling low in his belly.   
Wade laughed quietly, sounding out of breath, stilling when he pushed in once again. He ground his hips against Peter's, making the younger man exhale a long, drawn-out moan, both lust and relief.   
“So good for me … you want it harder now?”  
“Yes,” Peter whispered, clenching his hands to fists in the sheets.  
“Want me to fuck you hard?”  
“Yes.”  
“Hold on.”

Peter shivered at the demand, Wade's hoarse voice like teasing fingers on his skin. The younger man did, hugging the pillow again and biting down on it when Wade pulled out just a bit.   
Suddenly the pace was almost brutal, pushing Peter further up on the bed until Wade's arm slung around the younger man's hips. He shouted into the pillow, coming almost immediately while Wade just pounded him through his aftershocks, the Merc's climax following when Peter was desperately trying to catch his breath. 

Groaning, Wade gave a few last, hard thrusts, before pulling out with a sigh. His muscular body landed on Peter's back, followed by soft, gentle kisses on the hero's neck.   
“Oh god,” Peter sighed into the pillow, his muscles still twitching. “You're killing me.”  
Wade laughed against the younger man's shoulder, kissing his damp skin. “M'sorry.”  
Peter grinned, because it was obvious that Wade was lying. He rolled over to the side and rustled with the blankets for a moment while he discarded the used condom.   
“I can make it up to you,” Wade offered then, inching closer under the blankets again and sliding his hands up Peter's thighs.   
“N-no, thanks. No. Let's just …” Peter mumbled, taking Wade's arm and placing it around his chest. “Aww, alright, let's cuddle;” Wade replied, happily snuggling up and hooking his ankle around Peter's under the blanket. 

Peter smiled when Wade kissed his neck again, feeling relaxed and warm, loved and happy. And whatever came next for them, Peter was sure they would handle it as long as they could be in each other’s arms again at the end of the day.


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Hope your week is less stressful than mine ;) See you all next Thursday, until then, take care!  
> Enjoy <3

Even though Peter had thought he could spend one day with his family only, he found himself working the day after his graduation, and every day since then for a full week. He just couldn't sit idle and leave the data on the stolen hard drives alone, and SI's HR team had told him that the interviews would take some more time.   
So while he waited – also, he didn't want to work in a lab all by himself and rather do home office – Peter went through almost all of the drives. The hardest tasks were debugging and fixing codes of broken data pieces, something Peter wasn't that good at to begin with. He had to read up on a lot of things, but the young man just valued that as additional knowledge for the future.   
“You okay over there?” Wade asked from the living room, interrupting Peter's staring at the screen. “Need anything?”  
“No, I'm good;” Peter mumbled, having the screen show all of his folders to look them over once more. He'd managed to pick out small data packages – mails, documents on chemistry or research things, data on the hostages – and organize them by departments. It all looked about ready, so he double-saved everything, sent a copy over to a secure backup server of SI, then to his future labs.  
Now Peter was ready to go through all of this. Technically, that was. He wasn't sure if he could handle what he could potentially discover, but he'd never even know if he didn't start.

 

Tomorrow.

 

“How about we have dinner out?” he called over to Wade and basically fled his desk, flipping down the lid of the laptop that's shut itself down. A very nice piece of tech, that Peter secretly wished he could keep.   
“Sure!” Wade said right away, typing on his laptop with his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth. He looked adorable whenever he did this, but there was a gleam in his eyes that had Peter guess it was something important Wade was writing about.   
Bea was currently having a tea party with her bear and some dolls. Plastic cups and plates were everywhere, along with pieces of plastic cake and fruit. Peter carefully stepped around it to check the time on the kitchen clock.   
“Then we'd have to get going,” he said, watching as Wade typed. He was a pretty fast writer, but that text seemed to take another while.   
“Almost done. Can you get the little one?” Wade asked, his gaze flickering over the screen. Peter hummed in agreement and went over to the play area to help Bea clean up her toys.   
He thought about getting the supermarket booth out the next day, change her teatime toys with some more groceries and the shopping cart she could push around.   
Peter signed for eating and Bea nodded right away.  
“We go out to eat, baby, let's get you a fresh shirt,” Peter said and got up, following Bea to her room. 

“Which one?” Peter asked when he opened the drawer with her sweatshirts, letting her peek in but keeping a firm hold on the drawer so Bea wouldn't push it shut and catch her fingers. She looked around a moment, then pulled out a bright pink shirt. It said “cutest baby on the block” and had some Legos printed on it.   
“Perfect, very good choice. Let's put it on!”  
Peter helped her into the shirt and then they went to the bathroom so he could fix Bea's hair and put one of those pretty cute bows in it. By now they held well in her blond locks, and Peter mused what Wade would look like with blond hair.  
“You sweeties ready? I'm done here!” Wade called over from the living room, making Bea run over right away. Peter followed her with a smirk.  
“Only waiting for Papa.”  
“That does all kinds of crazy things to me, you calling me that!” Wade laughed, having already grabbed their jackets. He helped Bea put hers on and then picked her up. She happily pushed the button on the elevator, clapping her hands when the doors closed.   
“Always so helpful, what a good girl. Mmm, have I cuddled you enough today?” Wade asked, hugging Bea and swaying left to right a bit and kissing the girl's forehead.   
“I'm sure we can add some more for good measure,” Peter said, leaning over to kiss Bea's cheek. Their little girl laughed and pointed to the door excitedly as soon as it opened. 

They went to a small place they had checked out a few weeks ago, ordering some soup for starters – Peter was actually impressed of how much cream of tomato soup made it into Bea's mouth and not on her bib or the table, she seemed to love it. She had just learned how to sign for more, and she did it as soon as her bowl was empty.   
“We're gonna have more, baby, just be patient for a moment,” Peter answered, wiping Bea's mouth with a napkin. She signed more again and Peter nodded, telling her to look out for the waiter. When she spotted one, Peter was glad that it was actually the one carrying their main course, so Bea wouldn't be disappointed. Once she had her serving of Mac 'n Cheese, all was well in her world again. 

Bea fell asleep right away the moment they put her to bed in the evening, leaving Peter and Wade with some quiet time. They cleaned up the kitchen and living area together, and then Wade took on the laundry while Peter tried to sort through his old uni stuff, sorting out what he could use for future research and what could go. 

“I have to go to the Tower tomorrow, review the HR team's final votes on my lab team. I think I'll leave at about eleven, so do you wanna take Bea to go grocery shopping or should I take her to the daycare? You could pick her up after shopping, I think it'll take a while, Tony wanted me to take a look around the new lab, see if I need any more tech,” Peter said, hoping they could somehow match both their schedules so that Bea would be taken care of.  
Wade was quiet for a moment, sorting clothes that were fresh out of the dryer.  
“Actually, I wanted to take her over to May's.”  
“Why?” Peter asked curiously, putting his papers away in neat little stacks.   
“Just some stuff I gotta take care of.”  
There was a brief silence where Peter saved his work, then turned in his office chair.   
“Work stuff?” he asked, holding back a sigh.  
“Yup,” came the short answer from Wade, and Peter pursed his lips.   
“I thought you … would want to …”  
“Stop?”  
“Yes.”  
“Nah. Not yet.”

“When?” Peter heard himself say before he could think about it, sounding much more demanding then he wanted to. Wade tried to evade, turning around and shrugging his shoulders, but Peter just crossed his arms over his chest and waited it out. Eventually the older man sighed.   
“'Cause we need it? Cash 'n all.”  
“We have enough, you know that. Even more next month when my first paycheck from SI gets here,” Peter argued, since they both had access to their shared account. They had that one since just before they got married, which made things like paying bills easier.   
“Yeah, nah. That's for living and all, but you know I got some plans for us,” Wade mumbled, visibly uneasy talking about it. Peter tried not to roll his eyes, because he didn't want to spark a fight between them but also because he knew it was hard for Wade.   
“I know. But you … don't have to do that.”  
“Takes a bit too long for my liking. I … just want us to be safe. Before I stop.”  
Peter wanted to say more, wanted to argue that they were already safe, but maybe that just wasn't enough for Wade. Also, in Peter's opinion, having Wade go out and risk his life was much more unsafe for them as a family, no matter how much money he made with it.   
“C'mon, don't make it hard for me,” Wade begged, barely audible. Peter looked at the floor and took a deep breath.   
“I won't. Just promise you'll be careful.”  
“I will be. Love ya.”  
“Love you, too.”

Peter turned to his work again, feeling nowhere near satisfied with how that argument had turned out. He didn't want to pressure Wade into something, not at all, but Peter wanted to make Wade see that the Merc could in fact make his dreams come true. One of them was a respectable job to support his family with, which he actually already had. Sure, maintaining and renting out the other apartments they owned didn't make that much just yet, because they had to pay for some renovations, new floors or tiles – not all of the other home owners were as eager to renew, so some things were in dire need of fixing.   
And, yes, having a baby was expensive, and they didn't even use big brands and tried to save with some coupons and things.   
For Peter, who was used to not having all that much, it wasn't a big deal. But maybe for Wade that was different. Peter knew Wade wanted for his family to have the best things, to live the most safe life possible, and for him maybe that meant buying them a whole house.   
Sure, the rents they'd earn would be great once they owned the whole place, but … for Peter, it just wasn't worth it. He knew Wade didn't like working as a Merc.   
And since he was working with the Avengers now, it was clear that Wade was keeping these jobs a secret. 

Truth was: Peter wanted Wade to stop.   
He needed him to stop, for their family. 

Sighing, Peter threw one big stack of papers into the trash bin and got up. He aired out the living room, emptied out the dishwasher and then turned off the lights since Wade had already left to the bedroom.   
The usual three laundry bins were now in the hallway, neatly stacked and empty, and Wade was in bed already, reading something on Peter's tablet. 

Quietly, the younger man took off his clothes, changing into only a pair of loose fitting flannel pants, then he headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When Peter came back, Wade had already turned on the baby monitor and the lights on their night stands, but was still reading.   
Peter padded over on bare feet and slid into bed next to his husband. He turned off the light on his side of the bed and pulled up the blanket. 

He stared at the dark ceiling for a moment, sighing quietly, then Peter turned to the side, sliding over to Wade to lean against him. Wade let go of the tablet with one hand to gently place it on Peter's head.   
“M'sorry,” he whispered, but Peter shook his head.  
“It's okay.”

It really wasn't. But Wade had to make this decision for himself. 

 

When Peter woke up the next morning, his phone uttering little beeps on the night stand, he found the other side of the bed empty. Under his phone there was a simple post-it note where Wade had once again said “sorry” in his beautiful handwriting.   
Peter sighed and rubbed his eyes, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to stay calm and not angry at his lover. Wade had to make the decision, Peter thought to himself, repeated it again, before he got up. 

Bea was up and waiting for one of them to begin her day with, and Peter took his time hugging and kissing her, picking a cute outfit for her and putting a bow into her hair. He thought about sending Wade a picture for just a moment, then deciding he wouldn't. He still needed some time apart to not start a fight.   
Actually, Peter really didn't even want to fight, but he was angry about the fact that Wade couldn't just draw a line under his Merc career. But he realized that this wasn't his call to make, so Peter just needed to let off some steam before he spoke to Wade again. 

“Off we go, breakfast time!” Peter said happily and lifted Bea up when he had finished with her hair. Bea signed for father, obviously meaning Wade, since the apartment was silent.   
“Papa is at work, sweetie. Wanna go visit auntie May today?” Peter quickly distracted, but Bea still took a second to nod. “Alright, great. She'll be so happy to see you.”  
The moment Peter went over to the kitchen, Bea still on his hip, most of his anger just fumed off. 

On the kitchen counter there was a big box of Peter's favourite cereal waiting – they'd been out for about two weeks and didn't get around to buy any – along with a big bowl for Peter and a small plastic one for Bea, and two spoons.   
Another “sorry” note stuck to the box and Peter's lips curled into a smile slowly.   
“Look Bea, Papa has left us yummy breakfast!” Peter said and kissed his girl's temple, then got the milk from the fridge. He let Bea hold it while he carried her and the cereal box over to the table. Peter sat Bea down and strapped her in, then put some children's songs on for her while he prepared some fruit – while he was okay with eating only cereal, he wanted Bea to have something healthy as well. 

Once both their bowls were prepared and Peter sat down next to Bea, he hesitated a moment.   
“Let's take a picture for Papa,” he announced, taking out his phone and putting his bowl onto Bea's tray, right next to hers. She seemed to understand how taking photos worked by now, so she did look into to the phone when Peter held it up and told her to smile.   
A moment later Peter sent a picture of him and Bea with their breakfast over to Wade, along with the message “I'm not mad. Come home safe. We love you. <3”

After breakfast, Peter let Bea play a bit and organized his work, then called aunt May to let her know they were coming over. She asked Peter to pick up a few groceries for her, which Peter of course did.   
By the time he arrived at May's house with Bea, he was running a little late for his meeting at the Tower, so he ended up leaving the car in the supermarket's parking lot a few blocks from the house, so he could quickly web himself over to Avengers Tower. 

He stopped a block from the Tower and walked through the main door in an attempt to look like a serious scientist. On the first lab floor, he stepped up to the reception and told the blond, very sophisticated looking lady his name.   
„Welcome, Mr. Parker, glad to have you aboard,“ she said happily and rummaged through something under her desk.  
“Go right ahead to your lab, Mr. Stark is still in a meeting but will be there shortly,“ she eventually said, handing Peter a big padded envelope. Obviously she knew that Peter had already gotten a tour of his new workplace and that his fingerprints were already in the system.  
“Thanks,” Peter muttered and went into the longest hallway to the right, since his lab was on the same floor. Probably because they were closer to the security personnel, and unwanted guests could be stopped faster. 

Peter passed the first double doors and then continued through the long corridor while he peeked inside the envelope. To his surprise he found a small screen similar to a phone's, but it was much slimmer. It seemed to be the SI version of a pager, most likely with text and video functions.   
Along with the gadget there was a card for the parking garage, a locker key and a small stack of business cards as well as wristbands for the daycare floor – a small one and two larger ones. At last, Peter took out a name tag with a clip from the package.   
In the middle of the hallway, Peter stopped, staring at the tag. Then he pulled out his phone and took a picture of it, sending it over to Wade.   
_”I'm a little proud,”_ he admitted in the picture's caption.  
There was no reply from Wade, but that wasn't anything unusual when the older man was at work. As Peter swiped his thumb over a pad next to another door, Peter realized that he didn't even know whether or not Wade would be back in the evening.  
He'd left early and it didn't sound like it would be a long mission, still, Peter thought about asking him in the late evening if he didn't know by then. 

After Peter unlocked another door with a fingerprint, he was standing in front of the glass cube that would be his workplace for the foreseeable future.

It was gorgeous, a set of four big working stations in the middle of a room framed with desks and all kinds of experimentation and analysis devices.  
Since he couldn't find another pad nest to the glass door, Peter just grabbed the handle and pulled. The door slid open with a quiet hiss.  
 _”Welcome, Dr. Parker,”_ the A.I. greeted, a soothing, female voice.   
“Uh, hello,” Peter mumbled, more used to JARVIS speaking. Maybe that was just whenever Tony was around.   
_”I am Dee, here to assist you and your team and assure a flawless workflow.”_  
“Thank you, Dee,” Peter said with a smirk, geeking out just a little bit over having an A.I. just for him and his team.  
 _“You are welcome, Dr. Parker.”_

Peter contemplated for a moment about having her address him just by his first name, but then again this was an official environment. Also, he did quite like the title.   
“Dee, can you put a complete overview of the salvaged hard drives on screen for me?”  
 _”Certainly.”_

Not even a second later a holographic surface appeared floating above the working station in the middle of the room. Peter put down his briefcase on one of the desks and went over, rolling up his sleeves. Might as well do some work while he waited.   
“Show me only the mails,” Peter ordered and Dee made most of the folders disappear, leaving only four.   
Peter manually opened the first one, a flood of data appearing inside. Each folder represented a full year of correspondence, so Peter opened a digital notepad, took out his stylus pen and jotted down that the first date he found.   
“Dee, go through the background files and find me the oldest date, put it here,” Peter said, pointing to a place above his own note, quite pleased to actually have an A.I. What a way to work, so convenient.   
Dee was silent for a while, letting Peter work through some mails, before a date appeared. Just as Peter guessed the base was in operation for about four years and two months.   
“Thank you. Put a map on that screen over there, put markers for all the bases we've taken down so far.”  
A flat screen flickered to life, depicting a topographical map and some needles with red bubbles on top here and there.   
“Put these oldest date here on the map.”  
On top of the red bubble the date appeared in white letters, as Peter opened his mouth again.   
_”Would you like me to conduct a similar search for the other bases?”_  
Peter smirked, feeling a little spoiled by such easy work. He wondered if he really needed a team, but then again, there was much more work to do than just go through data. They had some chemical work to do, find out more about the boy, search for new bases, keep in touch with mutant organizations and possible victims.   
“Yes, please.”

He worked happily and quietly for about an hour, when the glass doors opened again.   
“Feels like home already?” Tony asked while taking off his black jacket. Peter grinned, shrugging his shoulders.   
“It's pretty great. - So, how about the team?”  
“Whoa there, eager. I like that. They'll start at Monday, all former SI, so there won't be much time lost with explaining stuff to them. That's the final choice,” the genius explained, wandering over to the table in the middle, but stopping and waving his hand dismissively when he saw Peter's work strewn all over the holo surface.   
He turned on a smaller holographic screen and turned it around so Peter could see.   
“We couldn't get the biochemist you wanted, ultimately another department of ours over in Dubai won her, allthough I can't understand why working there is better than here.”  
They both laughed and Peter wondered if he could ever visit one of the companies other locations all across the world. Then again, maybe not, because that would mean the mission had spanned the globe.   
“The new biochemist is already in-house and will come down here on Monday.”  
Peter nodded and they talked some more about the new team members, before Stark turned to the big screen again. 

“So, have you already got something for me?” he asked, staring at the masses of data on the screen.   
“Well, I could find out when the most recent base went into operation. I have Dee try and find similar dates, so that maybe we can-”  
“Compare the dates to what kind of companies were founded or which suspicious persons moved there during the time?”  
“Exactly.”  
The genius nodded, looking left to right on the screen, then nodding again. He reached out to pat Peter's shoulder.   
“I knew I could rely on you. Good work. I'll leave you to it.”  
“Thanks,” Peter said and shook his head with a grin when the genius was gone a moment later. There wasn't much more to ask for Peter, because from now on he was the boss. He'd make the decisions and tell his team members what to do. He was in charge.  
A very good feeling.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Another week, another chap for you! Let's do a fun fact: the working title of this fic was (still is in some documents) "baby steps". There you go, random fact end XD  
> See you next week, until then, take care and have fun! Enjoy <3

Peter had decided to work some more while he was undisturbed, going through all of the mails once he had Dee go through everything as well, sorting the unimportant ones into a different folder after Peter told her to – basically anything personal, like mealplans, vacations, jokes or cat pictures.   
They had made quick work of the bulk of information, leaving only one folder to work with.  
“We'll leave it at that. Save everything on the server.”  
 _”Saved.”_  
“Great, then we'll call it a day. See you,” Peter said happily, not feeling the least bit weird when talking to the A.I.

After checking out his locker and their brand new – family sized – parking spot, Peter left the tower and jumped up the wall in the next dark alley. On the nearest rooftop, Peter took out his mask and quickly pulled it on, just in case someone's smartphone could snap a picture. He took off his jacket and shirt and swapped it with his Spidey-shirt. His jeans and sneakers were something everybody could wear, so he left them on.  
Webbing himself over the City's busy streets, Peter found himself in an unusually good mood, humming to himself the whole way. In the supermarket's parking lot – now normally dressed again after a stop in another alley – Peter strolled over to his car and drove the last few blocks to aunt May's house.   
“Just in time for dinner!” she called first thing when Peter entered the house. He laughed, only now realizing his stomach was grumbling loudly. He suddenly felt very young again hearing that, just like he’d never moved out.  
“It smells great! Where's my Bea?” he asked happily and pushed off his shoes when the little girl came running from the kitchen. She stretched out her arms and Peter caught her mid-run, lifting her up and kissing her cheeks until she laughed. “Oh, I missed you, _so_ much!” Peter cooed, hugging the girl and keeping her in his arms as he wandered over to the kitchen.   
Aunt May was making her famous fried chicken breast with marinara sauce and vegetable casserole. Peter's mouth watered when he saw everything on the stove.   
“She missed you, too, but she was alright with drawing a picture while you were at work,” May said, smiling wide when Peter kissed her cheek.   
“That's great, wanna show me your picture?” Peter asked Bea, who pointed to the fridge. Under a magnet that looked like a sunflower, Bea's art was displayed, showing mostly scribbled lines and simple shapes. “Oh, I love it! Beautiful,” he praised. 

Peter and Bea set up the table together, but as Bea once again pointed to the empty seat, signing the word father, Peter couldn't help his smile falling just a bit.   
“Papa will be back tomorrow,” he said quickly, hoping that if it took Wade any longer, he'd be able to call and maybe talk to Bea for a few minutes.   
Bea's hand sank, but she nodded and then wanted to help put the plates on the table.   
They had a nice relaxing dinner together and aunt May had even made some cookies with Bea that they had while watching some TV after dinner. With Bea sitting on aunt May's lap, just cuddling, Peter decided that they'd just stay the night.   
“But then I will read her a story. And then you have to tell me all about your work, my boy,” May said, still hugging Bea to her chest.   
“I'm absolutely okay with that,” Peter replied from where he was stretched out on the sofa, just like so many evenings in his high school years. He still wanted to take care of Bea when they were alone, but he was just too comfortable at his old home. And with the amount of work he did that day, Peter thought to himself that he could very well allow himself to be lazy for one evening.

 

Late that night, when Bea woke up crying for some reason, Peter went downstairs after he’d put her back into her bed, to prepare himself a cup of tea. He ruffled a hand through his hair, yawning and wondering if he’d just stay up and do some work for his own projects. When he took the teabag out of the cup, throwing it into the trash, Peter decided that he should allow himself a bit more leisure time, so maybe he’d watch a few videos on the internet or just sleep after his tea.   
He was just about to head back upstairs when he heard a key turn very carefully in the lock. Peter hesitated, then turned to watch as the door opened and a dark clad figure stepped in. 

Wade pushed off his sneakers, but stilled when he spotted Peter at the stairs.   
”Uh ... hi?”  
“Hi,” Peter whispered and put his mug on the telephone table next to the stairs. He walked over as Wade put his keys into the bowl next to the door.  
If there was any dire need for words it was forgotten when they pulled each other close. Peter sighed against Wade’s neck, breathing in his lover’s scent, feeling his warmth. Wade kissed Peter’s temple, then slowly lowered his head to the younger man’s shoulder.   
”You were home already?” Peter asked because he could smell soap.   
“Yeah, I … had to take a quick stop to take a shower 'n stuff,” Wade mumbled, still leaning onto Peter's shoulder, audibly still distressed about what happened before he left.   
“It's alright, honey,” Peter whispered, placing a soft kiss on Wade’s head.  
He smiled when he leaned back, looking up to Wade. The older man’s eyes were dark and lustful, always like this when he came back from a mission.   
“Come to bed with me?” Peter whispered, his gaze softening when he saw Wade’s eyes zero in on his.   
“Yeah.”

They went upstairs quietly, holding hands, and Peter led Wade to Bea’s room first, so he could peek in quietly. A smile fluttered over Wade’s lips, so sweet and loving that it made Peter’s heart ache.   
“Was she doing okay?” Wade whispered when they walked over to the guest room, which by now was more like their own second bedroom. There were even some clothes in the drawer for both of them, that they’d left at aunt May’s some time ago.   
“Yeah, everything went great,” Peter replied after he’d closed the door, placing his tea cup on the night stand. He patted the bed next to him and Wade smirked. He seemed a little restless still, and Peter knew why that was, but there wasn’t all that much they could do about it.   
“I’ll stay off missions for a few more weeks now,” Wade promised, making Peter wonder if it was a “weaning off” kind of deal like with Bea and the binky.   
“Okay,” Peter just said, watching as Wade took off his hoodie and jeans then his socks and t-shirt, climbing into bed in only his boxer shorts.   
Peter pulled the blanket over both of them, laughing quietly into the kiss Wade pressed on his lips urgently. He was like this after most missions, in dire need to burn off the adrenaline built up over the night. Had he been really angry, Peter might have ignored Wade’s needs that night, but it wasn’t like the younger man himself didn’t feel anything when his lover kissed him like that.   
“Get some lube,” Peter whispered between kisses, nodding to the night stand on Wade’s side of the bed. Wade groaned in response, his fingers already a little unsteady as he pulled open the drawer and reached inside. Peter used the break to tug down his pants and underwear, before doing the same to Wade.   
The Merc’s hips twitched and he was already hard under the soft fabric, his skin feeling hot when Peter carefully closed a hand around his length.  
“Please, Petey ...,” Wade groaned, fumbling with the small tube of lube from the drawer. “I need it,” he whined, and Peter smiled.  
“I know, honey,” he replied, inching closer still until their bodies almost touched. His free hand travelled up to Wade’s neck, he slung his fingers around to the back and caressed the sensitive, marred skin he found there. Wade trembled and surged forward to kiss Peter again, heated and desperate.   
Gasping between kisses, Peter tugged his hand free from between their bodies and used it to pull Wade’s hips toward his own, making both their erections touch. Wade moaned and threw his head back into the pillow. He looked between them with bitten-off moans still trying to fight their way through his lips, fumbling with the lube and squeezing a good amount onto his fingers.   
They looked into each other’s eyes for a long moment before Wade reached down, the still cold lube glistening on his hand. 

Peter bit his lip when Wade’s hand closed around them both, squeezing almost too hard for a second, before he started to move. Wade’s strong, rough hand was so perfect, and the way he twisted his wrist just so on every upstroke had Peter’s eyes roll back into his skull.   
He hissed at Wade’s pace, too many sensations flooding his system and making him shiver. It was too much, too fast, but Peter still loved it.   
They panted into each other’s mouths, kissed sloppily and only parted when they had to clench their teeth to keep from moaning loudly. Peter’s back bowed when Wade sped up his moves, jerking them off roughly. He obviously needed it fast and hard, so Peter relaxed and just went with it, letting the rush of lust wash over him, making every nerve in his body tingle and his skin heat up. 

Peter gasped on one of those delicious twists of Wade’s hand, just managing to push his mouth against Wade’s shoulder to keep from moaning. He trembled and whined in his throat, coming shortly after. He felt Wade tense and pulse against him, groaning low with evers twitch of his hips against Peter’s.  
“Oh god ... I gotta fuck you ... first thing tomorrow night,” Wade grunted out, giving them both a few last, hard tuggs that made Peter wince. Despite still trembling in the aftershocks of his orgasm, Peter felt want bubble up inside him again when he heard Wade’s words. He was breathless for a moment, not only because of what they just did, but also because his thoughts had wandered over to the promises of the next night. 

Wade sighed and reached over to the night stand to grab some tissues and wipe his hand and their stomachs. He looked tired, but a lot more relaxed than before, that particular tense look around his eyes had vanished. Huffing out one last deep breath, Peter smiled and pulled Wade into another deep kiss, enjoying just feeling his lover close, enjoying to forget about their argument.

“Petey,” Wade mumbled quietly, leaning back only a little. “I’m sorry.”  
“Honey, it’s really okay. I’m not mad,” the younger man replied, feeling perfectly relaxed and ready to sleep some more.   
“You are.”  
“No, I’m not,” Peter said honestly, looking Wade in the eyes while he did it. Wade looked surprised and still a little doubtfull at that. “I’m not. I was, but ... it doesn’t matter. I love you and Bea loves you, whatever you do.”  
Wade cast his eyes down to the soft sheets, his fingers playing with a crinkle in the fabric.   
“Okay.”  
Peter smiled, reaching out to cup Wade’s cheek with one hand.   
“We could still get a few hours of sleep,” he offered softly, inching closer to his lover. Wade smiled and slung an arm around Peters waist, pulling him close and humming contently when Peter leaned his head on the older man’s chest.   
“Sounds perfect.”

In the morning, Wade took care of Bea while Peter took a long hot shower.   
“Ah, finally she’s stylish again,” Peter joked when Wade came into the kitchen with Bea, who greeted aunt May loudly. The little girl wore a pink ress with white polka dots, white tights and a matching pink floral headband. Wade had even made her tiny pigtails. Peter gave Bea a kiss on the cheek. She grinned and looked up to Wade, probably happy to have them all together her again.  
”Why, was Daddy dressing you in weird things?” Wade asked Bea in amusement, laughing with her.  
“Hey, I have at least a little sense of fashion by now. But I just can’t get her hair right, it’s always looking a bit off.”  
“Yeah, I saw the pictures,” Wade teased with a wink, making Peter laugh. Somehow the hairstyles Peter tried out always desintegrated a few hours later, making Bea look like a mad scientist. He tried, though, and hopefully that counted for something. 

Later, Peter made them all pancakes and they shared a family breakfast together, before he had to rush his sweethearts. Wade got Bea ready to head out, offering to drive Peter to work and then do some grocery shopping right away – he’d brought his coupons the night before from home.   
“But-“  
”I know, she’s gonna have something healthy,” Wade interrupted Peter, sounding amused, when they closed the car’s doors.   
“Yeah, that, too. But I meant to say remember to bring some yoghurt for the cake,” Peter giggled, because they had promised aunt May to come over for lunch on Sunday, and then stay for tea time, so Peter and Bea would prepare a cake.   
“Will do. Any wishes for dinner?” Wade asked as he pulled out of the driveway and rolled slowly onto the street.   
“No, surprise me.”  
“Consider yourself surprised, oh dear husband of mine.”  
Peter grinned at Wade’s good mood, happy to have him back. And hoping, even if just secretly, that his lover would stay with them longer then just a few months. He wouldn’t press, though, Wade had to sort that out for himself. 

 

Wade drove Peter to Stark Tower and Peter showed him to their parking space in the basement.   
“No way, you have a spot with your name on it?” Wade gasped when he rolled into the lot with _”Dr. P. Parker”_ printed in neat letters on the sign. “That’s so hot.”  
“Bea’s also got a place at the daycare, for whenever we need it. There are bracelets for us in the glove box, remember to always put one on her and yourself when you go into the daycare floor,” Peter said, taking his briefcase out and smirking when he found a tiny stuffed animal inside. He gave it to Bea and then kissed her.   
“See you guys in the afternoon. Love you.”  
“Love you, too,” Wade answered instead of Bea, and Peter leaned forward to kiss him as well. Then he got out of the car and waved his family as they drove off again. He even saw Bea wave back to him behind the window, and grinned. With the image of his smiling daughter in mind, Peter boarded the next elevator and got straight to the lab floor. 

Peter set up his workspace for the day, having Dee pull up all th data from he days before on the big screen. It all shuffled around for a while, being pulled from the hard drives and then organized in the way Peter had left it the day before.  
Slipping into his lab coat, Peter entered the security cameras.  
Three levels above them, in a lab that was actually for treating very hazardous chemicals an therefore completely sealable, the boy was still sitting in his little room – not more than a cell, actually, with a bed, a small table bolted to the floor, and two chairs in front of it. He’d apparently finished his breakfast, because there was an empty bowl and plate on the table.   
“Any progress?” Peter asked Dee, still wondering what was up with that boy.   
_”Some, Sir. He is eating and he isn’t showing any violent behaviour.”_  
“That’s a start. Could I ... see him? Talk to him?”  
 _”As of now, only psychologically trained personnel is allowed to see him. But if you wish, I can request a visit._  
“Yeah, let’s try. Thanks.”  
 _”You are most welcome.”_

_”Two notifications,”_ , Dee announced a moment later, when Peter had just picked up his work from the day before.   
“Tell me.”  
 _”There are DNA samples from the latest rescued hostages on the way to the lab. Also, your new colleagues have just arrived at the main reception.”_  
Peter felt a surge of nerves rush through his body, tingling down his spine, but he quickly shook it off. He was supposed to be the boss here, and he would do what he could to pull the team together and have them work on a solution. 

Not even five minutes later, Dee announced his new colleagues again and let them into the lab when Peter told her so.   
The first to enter was a woman with short, chocolate brown hair. She looked very fit, if not tall, and Peter assumed one of her hobbies must be sports.  
“Hello, Dr. Parker,” she said and had a nice calm voice. “I’m Julia Sanders, biochemistry.”  
“Hi, nice to meet you,” Peter replied and shook her hand. He offered her first names right away because he wanted them all to be comfortable working together. She seemed glad about it, and they talked a bit while Peter already saw a man walk towards the lab on the far end of the hallway. It turned out that Julia had a son of two and a half years that was currently staying at daycare, and that the sport she was obviously loving was tennis.   
“So, take a look around, tell me if you need anything else to work,” Peter said when the door opened and the man from the hallway entered. Julia greeted him briefly, then went over to examine her workspace. Peter shook hands with the man, welcoming him to the team.   
“Thanks. I’m Preston Warner, software specialist.”  
Peter knew this was a nice term for hacker, someone they direly needed if they wanted to get more detailed, confidential information to point them to the bases. Preston’s piercing blue eyes wandered around the lab and to the computers when Peter showed him around. They were pretty much the same height, but Preston was overall slimmer. 

A few minutes later, Dee opened the door to a blond haired couple. They looked a lot alike on first glance and Peter had assumed right, because they introduced themselves as Emily and Phillip Dawson, so brother and sister. Anna would take over chemical engeneering, working with Julia to find out more about how hydra made it even possible to create the children, and whether or not their methods left traceable residue. Phillip on the other end was one of the best profilers SI could give the Team, he’d work mainly on decyphering how their finds worked together and what that meant for the next steps they had to take against those sick people.   
They were a relatively small team, considering the usual working scales at SI – there was a lab some floors above them that had a team of _thirty_ people work on something classified – but Peter felt like they would do a good job.   
He gave them all some time to get familiar with each other and the lab and request the one or other additional equipment piece.  
Just after the new team members got around to introduce themselves to each other, an intern stood at the door with a package in his hands. It was one of those big, white cooling containers with a biohazard symbol on the side, alerting everyone of it’s potentially dangerous contents.   
Seemed like this arrival marked the beginning of their work day, and Peter quickly told Dee to open the door.   
“I’ll get it,” Julia said and picked up the bo to immediately set it into a clear circular tube on one end of the lab. There were four holes in the tube with built-in gloves attached, so they could work in a sterile environment. Anna got ready by putting on a lab coat, taking Julia’s over to the tube for her.  
The others slowly set to work as well, booting computers and stashing their personal things in the available desks.  
“You two go ahead and go through all the samples, put them into the database. Have Dee run a search in the background, compare your finds to the database we got from the mutant organizations,” Peter ordered the two women and turned to the rest of the team.   
Since there wasn’t anything to hack right now, Phillip, Preston and Peter – he just now realized they all had the same first initial, which Wade would have great jokes about – would work together at the main workstation in the middle of the lab.   
“Preston, could you take a look at all those files over here?” Peter asked and showed him a folder, opening it on the big screen for them all to review it. The hacker immediately recognized what was going on and hummed in agreement. “I did what I could, but I’m really no expert at repairing data. None of those were of any use, I don’t even know what could be in them.”  
“I got this, boss,” Preston said with a confident smile and swiped he folder over to his desk, where it popped up on a smaller screen. He got to work right away, his fingers tapping on the keyboard in a fast staccato. 

“And what’re we gonna do?” Phillip asked, brushing a hand through his sand colored hair and looking ready to get elbow deep into all that data. Good, Peter thought. Because they would have to do just that.   
He opened the rest of the files in a grid pattern, each little square showing a little bit of what the folders held.   
“This is what we got. We need to find out dates of Import and Export first, everything that could be considered trade. Also, I want to know how they got their money, so any and all account information needs to go on that screen,” Peter explained and pointed to a smaller holographic that showed his first few finds.   
“Alright, so half and half? Or should we use an algorythm?”  
“No, I already thought about that, but I stumbled over too many code words for accounting and money related things. There’s no way we could put them all in and still work in a reasonable time. We’ll have to do a manual search, but Dee can help us filter out things as we go.”  
”Perfect, then let’s go,” Preston said, cutting the screen in half with a gesture, so they could work side by side and not interfere with each other’s work. 

They worked for hours on end, sorting through data, throwing their finds onto screens and eventually filling most of the lab with lines of text. Still, drawing conclusions would have to wait another day, because Peter had set himself and the Team strict rules.   
As far as they could manage – with no immediate threats on the line – they’d stop working at the usual business hours, so that everyone could have at least a bit of family time. Starting time was for everyone to decide on their own, since Peter was up early anyways, because of Bea, and he knew with Julia it was the same way, but he didn’t want the others to force out of bed because of it.

Since Wade had taken the car home earlier that day, Peter walked a block and then snuck into an alleyway to shoot a web up to a roof, pulling himself high above the streets to swing home.


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there :D Better late then never, I guess? XD Sorry you guys, totally fell asleep before work, had some rough nights. So, in today's chap, Wade gets and offer he can't dismiss ... or can he? Find out ;)
> 
> Enjoy <3

When he came home, Bea greeted Peter happily, a cooking spoon in her hand dripping with some kind of sauce, that had found it’s way onto her face as well.  
“Wow, look at you,” he laughed, carefully picking her up and trying to hold her spoon away from both their clothes.  
”She’s taste-testing and I think that’s a thumbs up,” Wade explained from the kitchen, where he was just wiping down the counters. There was a big casserole in the oven and it smelled fantastic.  
“Oh, I’m sure it is. We’re gonna go wash out hands – and faces – and then set the table for you.”

After he’d cleaned Bea and convinced her to give up the spoon, Peter changed into a more comfortable shirt and then went to set the table as he’d promised. Bea carried one plate after the other over from the kitchen, walking very slowly and obviously wanting to be careful.  
“Very good, thank you,” Peter praised and signed the thank you for her. She replied with a gesture for “you’re welcome”, then pointed to her play area.  
”Yeah, go ahead baby, it’ll be another fifteen minutes,” Wade answered from the kitchen.  
When Bea was back with her toys, Peter went over and finally kissed his lover, telling him about how great his new team was.  
“No jerks?” Wade asked cautiously, knowing from experience all the dark sides people can possibly have.  
“No jerks. There’s even a mom. Her son is in daycare and about a year older than Bea. Maybe they can have play dates.”  
“Peter, our daughter will not have any kinds of date until she’s thirty,” Wade said darkly, before both of them snorted and laughed.  
“Sure, right, I’ll tell Julia about it and we’ll wait before we take them to the playground,” Peter giggled, kissing Wade again because he was really the cutest Dad. Just thinking about Wade and Bea together filled Peter's heart with so much love that he thought he'd never stop smiling for the rest of his life.  
“Nah, I'm kidding. You just hit her up, we'll meet up at the playground or wherever,”  
“You’ll like her,” Peter promised, but Wade just shrugged.  
”Not ma problem, I’m, like, lovely ‘n stuff. But she’s gonna need a strong stomach.”  
Peter clicked his tongue in disapproval of Wade talking down on himself like that, obviously referring to his skin. He leaned over and kissed his lover’s cheek, making him smirk shyly.  
“She'll like you,” Peter said confidently, before going over to the office to check on his own research. He suppressed a sigh when he estimated it'd be another few weeks before he could say anything definitive about it. 

After a nice and relaxing family dinner, Bea played with her stuffed animals for a while, then Peter took her to the bath. Lots of plastic fish were floating in the soapy bath water and Bea picked one up every now and again, letting it fly around or dive down again while Peter washed her.  
A bit later, with Bea wrapped up in a towel, Peter just wondered whether or not he'd have time for some more work. He turned to grab a diaper from the shelf next to the sink, and his head whipped around when he heard tiny feet tap away from him.  
“Wait, no, don't!” Peter blurted out, but Bea started running towards the living room already, her towel forgotten on the floor. “Bea!”

“Whoa, naked baby alert!” Peter heard Wade laugh from the living room, and saw how the Merc caught the little girl, tucking her under his arm. Bea laughed and squealed, kicking her legs, but Wade just went to the bathroom.  
“Nah, girl, you need some diapers at least. Seriously, if I can't be naked around the house, nobody can, let's keep it fair.”  
Peter giggled and watched from the doorway how Wade struggled a moment to get a diaper on Bea, then her night shirt. She was running off to her play are again as soon as she was dressed.  
“Well, she's definitely got that preference for nudity from me,” Wade joked and they laughed.  
“Yeah, no doubt she's yours. Go ahead, I'll clean up the bathroom,” Peter offered giggling, hearing Wade and Bea play soon after. He collected the towels and let the water out of the tub, rinsing the foam off the toys and drying them. 

An hour later Bea was already sleeping soundly, sprawled out in her crib, her favourite bear next to her on a night stand.

Wade had to work at the coffee table again, because Peter had now even used the last little space on their massive shared desk with a metal box he needed another week for testing his newest project. He had rented it from a lab, hoping that he could find a way in the future to use the StarkTech he now had access to, because quite frankly, a machine like that cost a fortune even when only renting it.  
Actually, he'd also had to lie getting it, because he'd told the lab of course he had his own testing facilities – well, they didn't know that was Peter's office space.  
One last time Peter took his specs out of the machine, placing them underneath his microscope to investigate later the next day. He checked that all his data had saved successfully, copying it on an external hard drive just to be safe, then shut down the computer and machinery. 

 

When Peter was done, he went back into the living room, where Wade leaned back with a satisfied sounding sigh. His laptop was open on the coffee table, a faint light coming from it.  
“We got it, honey,” he announced and a big smile spread across his face.  
“Got what?” Peter asked while he collected Bea’s building blocks from the floor. They weren’t usually cleaning up for her instead of with her, but she’d been so tired and ready for bed that Peter caved in.  
“We got the house, all of it.”  
Peter stopped, a wooden block dropping from his hand.  
“Are you serious?” he asked quietly, because he didn’t trust himself not to yell. Wade grinned, crossing his arms behind his head.  
“Yup.”  
“Oh, Wade,” Peter hissed, jumping over to hug his lover, who laughed as quietly as possible. They kissed for long minutes, giggling together and eventually Peter ended up sitting on Wade’s lap, snuggling up to him.  
“This is fantastic,” Peter mentioned, happy not only for them being one step further on their way, but also because it meant Wade would be busy for a while and wouldn’t take any more merc jobs.  
“It is,” Wade agreed, leaning back into the sofa happily, pulling Peter with him. “I thought about remodelling the places on the first floor to be wheelchair friendly. Like, to be nice ‘n stuff.”  
“That’s a great idea.”  
“Yeah. It’s gonna be awesome. And the third floor is just one big apartment, Imma make it two again. - Oh and I want to open up the janitor's closets on some of the floors, where the hallways are too small to put strollers inside.”  
“You’ve got big plans,” Peter commented, smirking against his lover’s shoulder.  
“Sure. I wanna make this place nice,” Wade replied, rubbing both hands over Peter’s back. The younger man thought about that for a moment, then leaned back to smile at Wade.  
“Sounds to me like you want to make this place for families, right?”  
Wade met Peter’s gaze, obviously considering Peter’s words.  
“I guess so, yeah,” he eventually said, maybe only realizing that now. He looked at the ceiling thoughtfully, then back at Peter, nodding. “Yeah, I want that. Imma make these places nice and safe.”

“I can take Bea to the daycare in the morning, when you got everything here and decide to get going with the remodelling,” Peter offered, thinking that it would be great if Bea and Julia’s son would get along well.  
“Aw, so I won’t see her all day? Petey, I can’ survive that,” Wade sighed dramatically, looking like he was already suffering.  
“But you’d have your hands free to work. You could also pick her up whenever you’re done, just remember the bracelet,” Peter said and finally slid off Wade’s lap to cuddle up next to him on the sofa. Actually they still had some work to do before Bea woke up again, but they also needed those moments to themselves to talk and touch. Feel like lovers as well and not only as parents.  
“Ugh but I can’t do without her, oh, the torture!” Wade sighed, but smirked when Peter giggled about his scene.  
“But she’d be happy playing with other kids,” Peter said and kissed his lover’s cheek.  
“Oh, right. Shit. Well, I guess that’s an argument. And the man-child over here doesn’t count,” Wade said with regret in his voice, sighing again. “Alright, then, she can go play. Ugh my poor heart.”  
Peter grinned and hugged Wade tightly for comfort.  
“Hm, yeah, that helps a bit ...,” the Merc began, muffled against Peter’s shoulder. His hands travelled up and down Peter’s back and Peter felt and heard the older man’s smirk when he continued. “But it’d really, y’know, get my mind off things if you’d, huh, I don’t know, blow me?”  
Peter laughed again at Wade’s innocent tone, but shrugged his shoulders.  
“Well, gee, I don’t know, maybe I could also just do you?” he said, mimicking Wade while reaching down to flick the button on his lover’s jeans open.  
“Oh, dear husband of mine, was my dinner so good that you wanna pound me into the mattress?” Wade asked, his voice noticeably darker with the last words. Peter giggled and slid back onto his lover’s lap, kissing him and licking into his mouth. Wade hummed, tilting his head a little and pushing Peter’s hips closer to his.  
“Mh, I could do you right here. Or ... on the counter. Oh, god, Petey, I gotta be inside you,” he huffed, nibbling on Peter’s neck, sending shivers through the younger man’s body.  
“But not here …,” Peter replied gently cradling Wade's head against his chest and stroking his fingertips over his neck. Wade groaned, shuddering at the touch.  
“C'mon. It'll be fun, get on the counter.”  
“No, honey. We can't do that. Let's go to the bedroom,” Peter insisted, not even wanting to think of doing it in their family kitchen. Wade moaned again, roughly pushing his hands into the back of Peter's pants, strong hands groping the hero's butt.  
“Then right here. Please, I need you.”  
“No, not here,” Peter insisted, but even he heard the fading resistance in his voice. Wade's tongue gently lapped at that spot just under Peter's ear that only he knew of, making the younger man moan. Peter felt like his muscles had turned into jello and he slumped against Wade.  
“Let's go,” he whispered, his heart picking up speed, heat pooling low in his groin.  
“We'll stay,” Wade growled, one hand leaving Peter's behind to no doubt search for some lube, maybe in the folds of the couch. 

Peter squeezed his eyes shut, only barely keeping himself from agreeing, saying just one thing that came to his lust filled mind.  
“I'll ride you. But only in bed.”

Wade's eyes opened and he was frozen for a moment, then he abruptly got up, lifting Peter to his feet as well.  
“Wow, it's so late already! Man, what am I tired, I gotta go to bed now, right now, like, immediately. Tuck me in?”  
“Nice and tight?”  
“Yeah,” Wade huffed, his voice rough and eyes gleaming with lust. Peter grinned, his eyes wandering over Wade's body, noticing the bulge in his pants. He reached out, satisfied with Wade's sharp intake of breath, but just held the older man's hand to lead him into the bedroom. 

Where they didn't find any sleep for the next three hours, but neither of them minded. 

In the morning, Peter woke up to the sound of Bea laughing, and quickly got up to take a shower. Just when he got out, a towel wrapped around his hips, their little girl wandered into the bedroom to look for him.  
“Good morning, sweetie,” Peter greeted and she signed good morning, smiling and looking absolutely adorable. Wade had managed to roll her hair into two buns on either side of her head, making her look like Minnie Mouse, complete with a bow in the middle.  
Bea reached out for Peter and he lifted her up, hugging and kissing her like every morning. She kept clinging to his shoulders while they all prepared breakfast together, always happy to cuddle for a while.  
Bea absolutely insisted to give Peter a big kiss before he left for work, so the hero got to the Tower with a big grin on his face.

 

Just after lunch Peter had to leave the lab for a bit, because Bea had another doctor's appointment. It was just a regular check-up, but Peter knew Wade had a hard time even knowing he had to take her to the doctor.  
The met up in the parking garage, where Bea was jumping out of the car all by herself, happy to be out and about as usual. She held Peter's hand as they walked over to the lift, and then pushed the button he showed her. One floor under the daycare, also accessible through the back entrance of the tower, was a StarkMedical office, where most of the “confidential” patients were treated.  
Dr. Dearing's new office was bright and open, matching her usual smile. Overall Peter thought that she seemed much happier, smiling every time he saw her, always nice to everyone. Well, once you had SHIELD off your back, you're probably a pretty happy person. 

Dr. Dearing greeted them at the door, even shaking Bea’s little hand. Wade was a lot less reserved around her, but still kept his distance.  
”So, how’s miss Bea doing?” she asked and opened their girl’s file on her desk.  
“Very well. She learns lots of new words to sign. She eats and sleeps well,” Peter said and put Bea down on the examining table, beginning to take off her shirt.  
“Has she said anything, yet? Some syllables would be enough.”  
“No, nothing,” Peter replied quietly, smiling at Bea so she wouldn’t be upset while he rolled her tights down.  
“But she’s smart, though,” Wade mentioned from his seat at the desk, where he usually observed the doctor’s moves from.  
“I know that. She passed all the tests so far, that’s why I’m not too concerned with her not speaking,” the doctor replied and took another note in the file, before getting up. She looked at Bea’s joints and listened to her heartbeat and breathing, then into her throat and ears.  
“Is there anything else that you would consider unusual about her?” she asked while gently laying Bea down on the table and feeling her stomach.  
“No, nothing. She listens well and signs without problems. She knows some letters and numbers, at least she can point to them when I ask. And she knows her colors well. She doesn’t stumble or fall very often, either.”  
“That’s good, so her inner ear seems to be developed fine. I feared that she wouldn’t talk because she might have hearing problems, but since that’s out of the question ... well, let’s just wait it out. I’ve seen kids not talk for two, three years and then suddenly they caught up in a few weeks. Every little person takes their own time,” she said as she lifted Bea up into a sitting position with a gentle smile.  
Peter smiled as well, glad that the doctor didn’t want to push the case too much. He thought that was the best way, too, just letting Bea develop in her own pace.  
“So, have you considered taking her to a daycare? You know social skills are important even for her.”  
“Yeah, I thought I’d take her here some days of the week, when Wade is at work. Not full-time, maybe, but still on a fixed schedule.”  
“Wonderful,” Dr. Dearing said and seemed happy with their choice. Wade and Peter hadn’t talked about which days of the week it should be, yet, but they’d decided on two, maybe three per week.  
“Then we’re gonna do her shot, and we’re done for today;” the doctor announced and Peter nodded, allthough he already felt his stomach clench. He was always the one holding Bea for things like this – well, all things that had to do with the doctor – but that didn’t mean he didn’t mind it.  
The doctor prepared the syringe while Peter sat down on the table, cradling Bea against his chest so that her leg was turned to the doctor. 

Peter looked over, surprised that Wade was actually in the room this time, but the Merc stared at a picture on the wall intently, his knuckles turning white from how hard he balled his hands into fists. He was shaking a little and finally closed his eyes when Bea started crying.  
“It’s okay, baby, all good,” Peter said and hugged her while Dr. Dearing thew away the needle. She’d even given Bea a tiny pink band aid and she quickly calmed down again once everything was over.  
“She could have a slight temperature tonight, but I actually doubt she will,” Dr. Dearing said, hinting at Bea’s healing factor that she knew of.  
“Alright, we’ll keep an eye on it.”  
“Good, then that’d be all for today. See you in three months,” Dr. Dearing said happily and tok one more note in Bea’s file, before shaking Peter’s hand. As usual, Wade didn’t shake her hand and she had stopped offering, but still said goodbye to him as well. Wade was the first out of the door and didn’t talk until they were well away from the hospital floor. He took a deep breath in the parking lot and asked quietly if he could hold Bea.  
“Sure,” Peter said and watched as Wade took Bea from his arms, hugging her and kissing her head.  
“God, I hate doctors,” he mumbled with his eyes closed. “My poor sweetheart, so brave getting your shots;” Wade praised, kissing Bea some more. Peter smirked, glad that Wade wasn't all that shaken by the visits anymore – the first time when Wade fainted was still in Peter's mind.  
It's been quite a few long nights of them talking when it was time to decide whether or not Bea should receive any shots. Eventually Peter and Wade both came to the conclusion that she'd get the ones for the most common infections, because she still had a human side. But things like flu shots they'd just ignore, since her own healing factor would take care of that.  
Peter kissed Bea as well and then helped to strap her into her seat in the back of the car.  
“Any wishes for dinner, my dear husband?”  
“Something with spinach?”  
“You and your greens … alright, I'll prepare something nice,” Wade promised with a cheeky grin and Peter giggled while handing Bea a little toy.  
“Can you check her temperature in, say, two hours? And then again two hours after that. Just to make sure.”  
Wade nodded right away.  
“Yeah, I'll text you. And now get that sweet butt of yours to work,” he ordered playfully and laughed when Peter stuck his tongue out. Bea laughed, too, which was always a wonderful thing to hear. 

Peter found himself long for his family for the rest of the day. He missed them, Wade's jokes, Bea's smile and her cute little hands that always found a way into Peter's. It was tedious going through file after file, sorting things and completing the biggest and most horrifying puzzle he'd ever encountered.  
They almost got a full schedule of deliveries done for the base, next step was to filter out the unimportant things like food or clothes, and focus on things like medical equipment and … humans. Once they had those times and dates, they could use some (hacked) data from different delivery companies to determine where everything came from. And then maybe have the teams knock on some doors.  
By the time rush hour rolled around, Peter felt his fingers and wrists tingle and he was out the door an hour later on the dot. Of course he'd go through some more data at home, but first he would get himself some hugs and kisses. 

“Yay, Daddy's home!” Wade shouted the moment Peter came through the door. Bea came running from the living room right away, her little feet tapping on the hardwood floors. Peter caught her in the hallway, lifting her up and laughing with her.  
“Today, we’re having spinach and gorgonzola pasta with a side salad and home made dressing, followed by very much not home made cookies,” Wade announced and Peter grinned, not only about Wade remembering his wishes for dinner. But also because Wade had even thought of a side and dessert to their meal, probably planning to present everything nicely.  
Peter took care of Bea from then on, taking her to the bathroom so they could wash their hands together, then the two of them set the table. Bea even began munching on her salad all by herself the moment Wade put a bowl in front of her.  
“Wow, someone’s got an appetite. Wait, you don’t even have dressing on there, yet!” Wade giggled and quickly added some yoghurt into Bea’s bowl. She signed for “thank you” while chewing, making Wade laugh.  
“Does “don’t talk with your mouth full” still apply?” he asked and Peter giggled.  
“I don’t think so. Maybe “don’t talk when you’re holding something” would be better,” Peter replied after setting the pot with steaming pasta on the end of the table.  
They had a nice family dinner together, something that never failed to recharge Peter’s energies and make him feel so blessed and happy. He smiled all the time while Wade told him of his day with Bea, how she helped with washing the lettuce and spinach, and how she ran off when he opened the cheese, because of the smell. 

Later, when Bea was already sleeping, Peter cleaned up his work space, even taking a moment to brush out the keyboard of his SI laptop – mainly because he couldn’t bear let such an impressive piece of tech get dirty.  
When he came around to putting some of Bea’s toys into a box – he’d put out a few other ones for the next few days, just so she wouldn’t get bored – Peter saw that Wade was working as well. 

The merc wrote on his laptop, his fingers tapping the keys fast. His phone was connected to the computer and the screen illuminated every now and again, maybe whenever Wade transferred some data.  
“Sweety, do we have someone to watch Bea while you're at work?” Wade asked, his voice even and chatty, which was already suspicious.  
“Uh, well, I can always take her with me to the Tower, so she can go to the daycare,” he offered, thinking about the bright happy rooms filled with toys that Bea would love. And he could have an eye on her while she played, since he could access the security cameras.  
“Cool, then I think I'll get going.”  
“Where?”  
“Got another job coming up,” Wade suddenly announced and closed his laptop, taking his phone from the table and typing on it. Peter just stared, absolutely not prepared for that.  
“What? Why?” he blurted out, having been under the expression that Wade would stay to remodel the other apartments first.  
“'Cause they're paying a shitload of money. Enough to put aside for a house,” Wade replied, his tone casual and like it wasn’t at all a big deal. Like he’d just go out for groceries. 

“But I thought … you wanted to stay ...” Peter mumbled, unable to keep himself from complaining.  
“Nah, Petey. C'mon, it's so much money, we can use it. Just a few days and I can stay for most of the year.”  
“A _few days_?”  
“Yeah, like a week at most. Not much.”

Peter stood in the living room, totally baffled by what he’d just heard. His heart ached when he thought about Bea asking for Wade for _a week_. In her little world, that was forever.  
He wanted to say something about that, but realized that wasn’t fair at all. They all used the money that Wade brought home, and as long as Wade chose to work these jobs Peter really shouldn’t complain.  
He was torn, eventually uttering a deep sigh. Wade, just on his way to the bedroom, turned again.  
They looked at each other for a long moment, then Wade’s shoulders sank and he looked frustrated He closed the distance between them with a few steps, gently placing his hands on Peter’s hips.. 

“Petey, don't you think I won't miss you?” he asked, tilting his head just a little before slowly leaning over to brush a kiss against Peter’s lips. The younger man noticed how Wade gave him time, moved slow to let him decide whether or not he really wanted to be kissed.  
“Then … don't go,” Peter heard himself whisper, although he’d just reminded himself not to pressure Wade into anything. He wanted Wade to be happy, so he’d give him whatever time his decision took. But ... it was hard.  
“I gotta,” Wade just said with a shrug, a pained look crossing his face for only a second before he turned to pack his weapons. Peter sighed, looking down to the floor and clenching his fists. He felt like yelling, throwing things around, just _forcing_ Wade to stay.  
But he couldn’t. 

He took some deep breaths, listening to Wade packing his things, hoping that it actually wouldn’t be a week without him.  
Then he went to the kitchen to prepare Wade some sandwiches, since it seemed he’d leave soon and miss out on dinner and maybe even lunch. Sighing again, he wrapped everything up and then made some fresh coffee to put into a thermo container. No matter how angry or frustrated Peter was, he knew Wade would hurry to get the job done and get back home, so Peter at least wanted to get him some food ready. 

When Wade got back into the living room, setting a duffle back down next to the kitchen island, he actually looked surprise to see the containers.  
“For me?” he asked quietly, still looking a bit like a kicked puppy. Peter knew Wade didn’t like to be selfish, and actually he wasn’t even, since the money was for the family. But they both knew Wade didn’t neccessarily have to do it, they could get by with the rents and Peter’s first salary coming in next month.  
“Yeah. You don’t need to go hungry. And ... be safe, okay?” Peter asked, equally quiet, holding Wade’s gaze as the older man nodded. 

They both knew they ignored everything that needed to be said.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. _Guys_.  
>  I saw Deadpool for the pre-premiere yesterday. And I didn't know that I could be any more in love with Mr. Wilson, but I guess it's possible. OMG, it was so good. I will never again watch any other movie in my life, because this one was true perfection.  
> Also, I might just buy some blue crocs.

So Wade had left in the early morning hours, after sharing a few brief words and kisses with Peter in the dim bedroom. Peter had listened to the apartment door close, then he’d stayed in bed, trying to sleep at first but quickly giving up.  
Eventually he’d started breakfast for himself and Bea – pancakes, since he had the time. Of course she was happy about that, a big smile on her face when Peter even poured some syrup on her pancake.  
Still, she signed for Wade, pointing to his usual spot at the table.  
“Papa’s at work. And we’re gonna have a lot of fun today!” Peter quickly said, trying to distract her by offering her some fruit for her pancake. She chose to have berry mix and then some apple on the side, even finishing two pancakes.  
Peter let her watch one of her favourite shows while he cleaned up the kitchen, then went to get her dressed so they could leave for work.  
Bea seemed excited to go to the tower, pointing at everything and smiling when Peter let her push the elevator button. He tested the bracelet on her arm again, but it sat right, letting them into the daycare two floors under the labs. 

Peter was very obviously anxious to just go, so he walked around with Bea for a bit, looking at the different toys and talking to the nannies.  
“She’s not human, right?” a young woman asked in a hushed voice, and Peter shook her head.  
“No, she’s at least part mutant. But she’s well behaved,” he replied, not wanting them to treat Bea differently than the other kids.  
“Yeah, just wanted to make sure,” she replied with a friendly smile. Peter decided to not tell her about Bea’s powers, since it’s been months since she’s last been upset enough to use them. Their little trick with the song worked well, always calming her down.  
Still, Peter couldn’t just leave, so he stopped Bea when she wanted to run off to play, and kneeled down in front of her.  
“I have some work to do, you play nice here, okay?” he said, because he actually didn’t want to ask her directly if she wanted to stay or not, because the answer might have been no. Her eyes widened slightly, so Peter quickly kissed her cheek. “I’ll be right back, you have fun with all those awesome toys.”  
Thankfully, the nanny stepped in at that moment, probably having developed a feeling for those kinds of situations.  
“Look, we’ve got lots of paints over there, can you help me paint a nice picture?” she asked and pulled Bea over to the crafts table, talking to her and showing her all the different paints so that she was distracted.  
Peter quickly left, even though it pained him to do so. He immediately entered the security cameras and watched Bea sit down in a small chair, waiting for the nanny to put an apron on her before she could start to paint. She seemed to enjoy herself after a moment, smearing paints over a big paper with both hands.  
Peter took a screenshot of Bea, sending it over to Wade to tell him that she was actually doing good in daycare. As usual, he didn’t receive an answer but would maybe see that Wade had read the text in an hour or so. 

The Team was mostly assembled in the lab already, and Peter announced right away that he planned on only working half the day at the lab, the other half at home.  
“Does anybody have a problem with that? Please, let’s be honest.”  
“No, it’s fine, Peter, really,” Julia said and promised they’d finished today’s testing before heaading off to home as well.  
“I’ll have someone bring us laptops. Preston, Phillip, you can work from home, right?” Peter asked when he went to the main working station. He didn’t know that much about his co-workers private lifes to know whether or not they could be undisturbed. Both agreed and Peter sent a mail to resource management, requesting four more of those laptops, like the one he still had at home – Stark had him keep this one for as long as he was contracted, the others would have to bring theirs back right away. 

So they worked half the day, doing all the necessary experiments and analysis work they needed, collecting data, and afterwards they all headed home to work on conclusions and even chatted about their finds.  
Back at the lab, Dee would supervise everything and add it to the maps and notes on the screens there. 

Bea was absolutely tired when they arrived home, so Peter made her a quick snack and put her to bed, where she took a three hour nap. Peter prepared himself a big cup of coffee and finished most of his work in those three hours, so he could play with Bea after her nap. To keep her mind occupied, Peter build a blanket fort in the afternoon, putting on a movie for the two of them and they snacked on popcorn, cuddled up in lots of blankets and pillows. 

Even though Bea still slept restless that night, the next day she seemed excited to get back to that place with all the toys – the daycare – and just gave Peter a quick kiss before hurrying off to play. Peter actually felt a bit torn about that, sure he was happy that Bea was happy, but then again he loved having her around and seeing her just turn and leave kind of hurt.  
To console himself Peter got a coffee first, then went to the lab for another half-day full of rummaging through piles of data.  
It went on like this for another two days and Peter noticed with satisfaction that they both fell into a routine. Bea had fun at the daycare and he could work well when she was all tired out from playing. Not once did she have a meltdown or anything that needed Peter to come down, so he felt reassured for the future, when they’d maybe send her to kindergarten or to a pre-school. 

 

On the fifth day alone with her, Peter had decided to stay at home all day, just to be there for Bea and work whenever she played or slept. He’d called a very casual Friday to his co-workers, who were currently working from home as well.  
“Bea! Wanna help me bake a cake?” Peter asked happily, having already set up all the ingredients on the kitchen counter. They’d visit aunt May on Saturday, maybe Sunday, so Peter wanted something nice prepared.  
Little footsteps approached and Bea raced around the sofa, wearing her favourite dress, featuring Minnie Mouse, and pink tights. Wade was actually the one who had mastered the art of Bea’s hairstyles, but Peter thought he’d done a pretty good job with those pigtails today.  
“Come on up here, cutie. Can’t mix any good cake batter without my best mixing helper.”  
Bea showed him a huge, wonderful smile and raised her arms, letting herself be lifted up onto the countertop. Peter sat her down a bit further from the edge, so she wouldn’t just slip whenever she wiggled her legs. 

She watched in concentration while Peter measured the ingredients, reaching out for every cup and spoonful that went into the mixing bowl to pour it in herself.  
When Peter used the mixer, she scooted back a bit, but when it was time to put the chocolate chips in, Bea was even more eager, dumping the whole packet in there at once. She was ecstatic when Peter gave her a big wooden spoon and let her stir the batter until the oven was hot enough.  
They scooped up the batter into the cake mold together, Peter watching Bea in quiet amusement, with her eyes sparkling from happiness. It was just the best thing ever. 

Later Bea signed for eating, and Peter answered that it would take some more time, showing her the clock on the oven. She nodded slowly, understanding, and then looked around the room.  
“What is it, cutie pie?”  
Bea looked up, raising her opened hand and letting her thumb touch her forehead, signing the word for father.  
“Papa’s gonna be back soon, we can call him later,” he promised, feeling a tug in his heart when Bea looked down, but nodded. She knew Wade would come back, but she probably didn’t understand what missing someone was, yet, so she just looked so sad sometimes. Peter tried to distract her then, but today she didn’t want to play anything while waiting for the cake.  
“Then help me clean, sweetie,” the hero proposed, knowing that she was always keen on helping. And of course she was whisking through the kitchen with a bunch of paper towels in her hands, wiping down every surface she could reach, and even helping to load the dishwasher. 

They ate some of the cake together while watching Bea’s favourite show, with her cuddled up to Peter’s side. The “Spider-Bear” was sitting with them and after Bea has had her milk, Peter put her down for a nap in her room. She asked for Wade again, but Peter distracted her with the bear and kissed her until she giggled. 

The rest of the day went by quickly, but when he sat down to watch a movie all by himself, Peter’s eyes flicked to the baby monitor time and again. Bea was sleeping restlessly, thrashing around and whining sometimes. Peter guessed she’d wake up a few times, and wondered idly if he should just let her sleep in their big bed just this once.  
At some point during the movie, Peter fell asleep, curled up on the sofa instead of in the lonely bed. 

 

He woke with a jolt when the living room window next to him was pushed open and a dark figure tumbled in.  
”Wade?” he murmured and got up clumsily, his joints stiff from sleeping curled up on the couch.  
“Yeah ... uh _fuck_ ... Petey, I ...”

Oh God, he knew that tone. Wade was badly hurt, had probably rushed home right after the mission without taking a break just so he could be with them again.  
Peter was right by his side, helping him up and trying to ignore the way his fingers immediately felt sticky and slippery the moment he laid hands on Wade’s left arm. 

“Let me help with that,” Peter mumbled and the two began undoing Wade’s weapon holsters and then carefully removing his suit.  
“Ouch, watch it ... ugh ...,” Wade groaned, a gush of blood coming out of his left boot when Peter gently tugged on it. He could make out a huge wound under Wade’s costume, slicing almost completely through the foot. The boot was probably helping more than anything that Wade could still stand.  
“What did you do?” Peter sighed in horror.  
”Oh, y’know ... the usual ...” Wade giggled nervously and Peter thought about carrying him to the bathroom to catch the blood until it had healed enough. But before he could make any move, a small voice made them both freeze.  
“Papa?”  
Their heads turned to see Bea standing in the doorway to the living room, her hands clutching her favourite stuffed bear.  
“Yeah, I’m home little one,” Wade answered in an unsteady voice, probably just as surprised about Bea’s first words as Peter. The little girl stretched out one hand and it was only then that Peter realized how dark it was in the room. The lights had been off when Peter started the movie, and now the credits of the DVD were rolling, leaving the screen almost black.  
Most likely she could barely see them, and Peter was eternally relieved that she didn’t see the blood. 

Wade stepped forward and Peter could hear his teeth grind from the pain he had. Still, he made no other sound, just slumped down on one knee a little too heavily, and hugged Bea with only his right arm.  
“I missed you, little one,” he sighed and Peter felt his eyes sting at the tiredness in his voice.  
“Mmmh,” Bea just hummed, probably not able to say miss you, just yet. Her little hands patted Wade’s head and when she hugged him, she could barely even reach onto his shoulders. Quickly Peter rubbed over his eyes and put on a gentle smile.  
“Bea, cutie, let’s get back to bed. I’ll come with you,” Peter offered hastily, but Bea just shook her head.  
“No. Papa.”  
Wade opened his mouth, but he seemed unsure what even to say.  
“Papa will bring you to bed tomorrow. Now, let’s go sleepy,” Peter said resolutely, and took the little girl by one hand. She looked very tired and Peter found himself wondering how in the world she had even made it out of her bed.  
“Say night night to papa,” the hero offered, smiling as he hoped she could do it to make Wade feel better.  
“Ny ny, papa,” Bea mumbled, then wandered through the hallway with Peter. 

Back in the nursery the younger man saw that Bea had actually unscrewed one of the rods of her crib to squeeze through, maybe when she heard Wade. Peter didn’t mention it, just screwed it back in and took a mental note to fix that.  
After a short song and some patting on her back, Bea was fast asleep again, hugging her bear and looking like the little angel she was. 

The night seemed to get longer and longer when Peter saw that there was light in the bathroom and some blood drops lead through the door. Inside, Peter found Wade sitting on the edge of the tub, both naked feet inside, so that the blood from his extremely big wound could just go down the drain.  
“So ... she’s talking, huh?” he said while trying to strip out of the rest of his costume. He had cut the ruined pants off, was now wiggling out of the top, but his arm was also bleeding furiously. 

“She never did before. I guess she really missed you,” Peter replied softly, stepping over to help his lover tug off the tight fabric. He smelled like gunpowder and blood, like a man who’d been fighting for hours.  
“I missed you guys so much,” he sighed, rubbing his face with both hands.  
“We're glad to have you back,” Peter replied softly, letting some water run into the tub. Taking an old towel from under the sink, he rolled it up and placed it on the edge of the tub.  
“Get on in, I'll help you,” he explained and all but lifted Wade into the warm water, carefully avoiding dunking his injured foot in.  
With the still bleeding foot on the edge, dying the towel red, Wade groaned and let his head sing back against the tub.  
“This feels so good. Like … like home.”

Smiling gently, Peter began carefully washing Wade, pouring a few different solutions into the water to help calm Wade's skin down. 

Keeping his voice soft and quiet, Peter entertained Wade with some stories of Bea, like that time when she wanted so badly to help water their plants but ended up pouring most of it onto the floor.  
“But she was so proud when the watering can was empty.”  
“And you will let her help every time, won’t you?” Wade asked, grinning although it hurt his face. Peter laughed softly, such a lovely sound. His arm was throbbing, but getting better now that the flesh wasn’t dangling off the bone anymore.  
“Of course. But I did teach her about cleaning and she actually likes helping me with that, too. So it’s okay.”  
“She’s gonna become your little shadow.”  
”I think she’ll follow you around for the next few days because she missed you so much. At least three times a day she asked for you.”  
Wade smiled, feeling a tug in his heart, a longing to finally stay home with his little princess and his lover. With the three black pouches of cash in his duffel bag, he now had that opportunity. He couldn’t wait to spent a full day with his family again.  
“She’s got the cutest voice,” Wade mused, smiling wider at the memory. He saw Peter grin and nod.  
“Just imagine her singing.”  
They both laughed at that, Wade’s heart feeling as if it might burst with love. 

Peter fell silent after a moment, his gaze dropping to the tiles. His eyes moved left to right as if he was following the edges of the tiles.  
“Wade …,” he began and sounded so serious that the older man looked up. His next words were measured and Wade saw his lover's hands clenched into fists. “I … really don't want you to leave anymore. I know it's your job and you … want to do it, but … I don't want it.”  
“I don't want it either,” Wade blurted out quietly, a lurch in his heart at the words. Peter looked up and they shared a long look.  
“Then why?” Peter demanded, his eyebrows drawn together and hurt shimmering in his eyes.  
Wade felt terrible when he thought about how he just left without much time for Peter to prepare anything. He sighed.  
“I … I want us to have … like, everything. I know you didn't have much growing up, neither did I. But … I really want Bea to have everything, to have these cheesy white-picket-fence-memories of childhood.”  
Peter's shoulders sank and he nodded silently.  
“Money isn't all, you know. I was always happy and loved by my aunt and uncle and, yes, I understand it's hard … I really know, you know I do. But Bea is loved, too. She will remember that much more than fancy toys.”  
“Yeah, maybe,” Wade said and looked off into the air, trying to wiggle his slowly re-growing toes. It didn't quite work, yet. He took a deep breath and finally admitted to himself and to Peter:  
“But maybe I also really need to do this. I … I can't explain. I just … it's so much money and so easy, when ...”  
“When working with the house is hard?”  
Wade felt guilty and like a coward, but nodded.  
“Yeah. For me, at least. The Merc stuff I'm used to.”

There was silence, then Peter's soft, gentle hand reached over the edge of the tub and smooth fingers closed around Wade's chin. His head was turned slowly and then Peter's lips were on his, so loving and gentle.  
“I understand. Let's … not fight about it?”  
Wade had to keep his eyes closed for a moment longer because they were stinging with wetness.  
“Okay. Thanks.”

 

When he was reasonably clean and just had to do some more healing, Peter left him in the tub for a while, coming back about half an hour later when Wade’s eyes had just fallen close from how nice the warm water felt.  
“I got the living room clean again and put your boots in a plastic bag ... I, uh ... couldn’t really clean them,” Peter said and pulled a face, which Wade could absolutely understand.  
“No, it’s fine, honey. Please, I can do it,” Wade whined, the thought of his lovely Peter having to handle his blood soaked boots embarrassed him a little. Also, he might have lost a toe or five in there and he really should take care of that himself. He thought of that “recovery room” he’d installed in their old apartment – basically a broom closed with a morgue table in it where the blood could be drained from and Wade could heal in peace, without Peter having to see it. The fact that he didn’t even think about installing one in their current place probably said a lot. To someone who actually thought about things. Wade didn’t, because he didn’t want to. Not yet, anyways.

 

“Petey ...,” Wade mumbled when he lifted himself out of the tub, the wound in his leg now not more than a reddish shadow on his skin. The younger man looked over from the cupboard, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw how Wade looked at him.  
“Come over here?” the Merc asked softly, then stepped out of the tub completely naked.  
“I ... I, uh ...”  
Peter cleared his throat when all his senses went haywire, even his knees trembled. He knew Wade had too much adrenaline running through his veins in he past days, and the pure need in Wade’s voice had Peter shiver.  
“Don’t you wanna go to bed?” he asked, barely more than a whisper.  
“No. Not yet, I ... I can’t even lie down now. But if you don’t wanna, it’s okay, really,” Wade added hastily  
“N-no, that’s ... that’s not it,” Peter giggled nervously, taking out a stack of fresh towels. “But I want you to relax. Those wounds must still be sore.”  
“They are. But I’ll be relaxed. You gonna be, too. If you wanna,” Wade mumbled, walking over to the shower and turning it on. Peter blinked, then looked down and began opening the knots on his sweatpants.  
“There we go, come on in,” Wade said eagerly, still jittery with the healing factor working and the adrenaline rushing through him as he went to the medicine cabinet and opened it. On the top shelf, behind some plastic wrapped bandages, was a small tube of lube.

Once all his clothes had rustled onto the floor, Peter followed Wade into the shower, sliding the door closed behind them. He was pulled against Wade's chest right away, leaning up into a rough, urgent kiss, their tongues mingling between shared breaths and moans.  
“Turn around for me?” Wade asked, his hands on Peter's hips with the thumbs stroking over the younger man's skin. Peter kissed Wade one more time, letting his lips linger on his just a moment before turning.  
He bent forwards and placed both hands on the tiles, taking deep breaths to steady himself and not come the moment Wade touched him. It was hurried and Peter clenched his teeth when Wade pushed two fingers in roughly, stretching him fast until he was shivering and panting under the warm water.  
They both were too impatient and when Wade pushed in roughly just a moment later, Peter moaned and balled his hands into fists.  
”Wait ... wait ...,” he ground out, his forehead on the cold tiles and eyes squeezed shut.  
“It’s been too long ...,“ Wade murmured regretfully, stroking both hands over Peter’s lower back soothingly. “I missed you ... missed feeling you like this ... god, you feel so good, Petey.”  
His lover’s raspy voice made Peter shiver and he adjusted his grip on the tiles again. He felt like he was lit on fire, every nerve in his body flaring up, sending wave over wave of pleasure through him. When Wade turned the shower head just so that it hit Peter’s back right on, letting warm droplets stream over his skin, tickle and caress him, Peter moaned and felt himself clench around Wade.  
“Please ... honey, please ...,” he managed, close to yelling.  
“What’d you need, my love?” Wade asked, softly and almost drowned out by the water rushing around him. His hands were just as warm when they wandered over Peter’s back.  
“Please ... _fuck me_ ,” Peter whispered, feeling his face heat up from begging like that, and worrying that Wade might not have heard him. Then the older man moved and most coherent thoughts just evaporated like the hot water. 

The first time Wade hit his prostate spot on, Peter came with a startled sound, clinging to the wall desperately while Wade just continued to move inside him.  
“I missed you so much ... being inside you.”  
Peter’s eyes rolled back and he was sure he was going to pass out from the relaxing water, the intense orgasm and Wade’s words. And the older man was still going, pushing into him in rough, long strokes. 

Wade grinned when he saw how Peter’s hands slowly went up the wall and his whole body followed, until he held himself on the slick tiles.  
“Didn’t know you could do that,” he huffed and sped up his thrusts. “Isn’t it too slippery?”  
“No ... no ... good ... oh god, so good,” was all Peter could manage to say, He was completely out of it and Wade grinned wider with pride, because he could do this to his lover.  
“That’s so kinky, I love it! Kinky mutant sex yay!” he laughed and Peter breathed out giggles, but they were soon drowned out by moans. 

A moment later, Peter actually did slip, but just because he was so startled as he almost came again after one of Wade’s carefully angled thrusts.  
“C’mon, one more. For me. You know you can,” the Merc grit out, holding onto Peter's hips and thrusting into him again and again. The younger man moaned loudly, but didn't object.  
Not this time, and not the time after that. And after that. Not until they both fell into bed and a dreamless sleep right away. 

 

In the morning, Wade was the first to wake up. Even though he was still tired, he couldn’t wait to get out of bed and get their little girl, longing to hug and kiss her since he couldn’t for so long. He waited impatiently, watching the baby monitor until he heard Bea rustle around in the bed and pat the bars on her bed for them to hear.  
Sliding out of bed, Wade hurried to the nursery.  
“Good morning, little princess,” Wade said and grinned when Bea’s head poked out of the bed, hair sticking up in all directions. She wore a nighty with Cinderella on it and smiled brightly.  
“Papa!” she shouted and Wade was sure that this was one of the best things he’d ever heard. (Along with Peter’s “I do”.)  
She jumped up and down in her crib and stretched her arms out for him, clinging to him the moment Wade lifted her up.  
“Did you sleep well, little Bea?”  
“Yeah,” she just said, muffled into his shoulder, because she just wouldn’t let go. Wade couldn’t stop grinning, asking Bea what her dreams were about. She mumbled something while Wade changed her diaper, marking the first time she actually babbled like other babies.  
“That’s so interesting, wish I could dream all that,” Wade said happily, although he didn’t understand one word. Bea smiled when he sat her down on the floor so they could choose an outfit together.  
She chose a black and white polka-dotted skirt and let Wade pick a shirt for her. He decided on one with mickey mouse on it, since it was also mostly white and matched the skirt. He put black tights on her as well.  
After that Wade sat Bea down in front of the big mirror on her closet, starting with her hair.

“You hungry already? Do you wanna eat?” Wade asked a bit later and just to make sure he signed eating for her.  
“Yeah,” Bea answered, getting up from the floor and looking into the mirror one more time.  
“Alright, we’ll wake Daddy up and then we have breakfast. Can you help me wake Daddy?”  
“Yeah.”  
So they walked into the bedroom together, Bea pushing the door open all by herself and running over to the bed. She climbed up, which took a moment, and then sat down next to Peter, who already opened his eyes.  
“Hi. Good morning, princess,” he said, his voice still rough from sleeping.  
“Daddy!” she said and Peter’s eyes widened. Wade laughed when a huge grin spread over Peter’s face and he pulled Bea in for a hug. She laughed and kicked her legs as Peter rolled around with her.  
“Oh, I’m so happy, you have such a beautiful voice!” he laughed and Bea squealed when Peter kissed her cheeks.  
“Right? The cutest. She picked her skirt herself today and our OOTD is a very chic black and white combination powered by Disney,” Wade explained, which had Peter laugh again.  
“And her hair is done so nicely.”  
Bea sat up and touched her head, where two neat braids ran in a circle from the back of her ears to her neck. Peter had actually no idea how Wade did that, with how short and thin Bea’s hair still was.  
Bea mumbled something urgent sounding, and signed for eating.  
“Oh, we’re gonna have breakfast now. C’mon, let’s go to the kitchen.”  
”Yeah,” Bea said happily, cuddling up to Peter, who carried her over. She kept hugging and cuddling him until her breakfast was on the table. 

 

From then on, Bea talked more and more. It wasn’t very articulated, but she got around with what she wanted, and if she didn’t, she could still sign it. When it was time to head out on Sunday at noon, Peter had made a plan.  
“Bea, remember what we practiced?” he asked when they were at aunt May’s door. The little girl nodded and looked so serious, like it was the biggest task on the planet.  
Wade grinned like a dork, but Peter was sure he didn’t look any better himself. They were just so hopelessly in love with this little girl, and so proud when the door opened and she stepped up.  
“Nanna! Hellooo!” she shouted, then jumped up and down in excitement when she decided she’d done good. They couldn’t get her to say “granny”, yet, she just was unable to pronounce the R, so they’d taught her nanna.  
Their aunt was thrilled, hugging the little girl close and giving her kisses until she squealed with happiness. And Wade did suddenly have the permission to say granny May to her, just  
“Not too often, I’m not that old yet,” she insisted.


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D A longer chap today, but it's also more chill for a change =) Hope you all have a nice week! Enjoy <3

They spent a lovely Sunday with aunt May, who of course was happy that Bea could now talk. She asked lots of questions about it, like when it happened and whether they knew why it had taken her so long.   
“No, no idea. That's just how she did it. And she seems to know quite a few words already, so she was listening well the whole time,” Peter replied, setting his teacup down.   
“Well, it doesn't matter. Now she's talking, and what a lovely voice she has!” aunt May said happily. Bea smiled up to her from her cup of hot cocoa, that she could even hold all by herself (as long as Peter could sit next to her and have an eye on it).

After some more tea and cocoa, they went to a nearby playground together and Bea had a great time with her whole family around. Peter climbed through the play structure and went down the slide with her. Wade and aunt May played in the sandbox with her while Peter took some photos later on. 

After Bea went to bed in the evening, Wade offered to clean up the bathroom and kitchen, so Peter went to the office. He meant to just look into what his co-workers had done during the last days, maybe take some notes for the next day, but he got glued to the screen eventually,   
He only noticed how long he'd been sitting at his desk already when Wade came over to ask him if he wanted a tea before they went over to the bedroom. Not necessarily to sleep, but after a day packed with entertaining a toddler they needed to stretch out a bit. 

“You're working already? Petey, you need to take a break every now and then,” Wade said, concern in his voice. Peter turned, shrugging his shoulders and taking his glasses off that were a mere habit and not doing anything to his already perfect sight.   
“I just can't figure it out. We found so much, but … then again, it all seems random. The companies that deliver to the base sell all kinds of things, even gardening tools and ad signs!”   
He huffed in frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose with index finger and thumb.   
“Honey, you'll take a break now. Sleep over it a night and tomorrow you'll figure it out,” Wade advised gently, slowly spinning Peter in his chair until the younger man's back was facing him. Wade put his strong hands on Peter's tense shoulders and began a gentle massage.   
Peter sighed, the smile on his lips even audible in the content sound.   
“Thanks … ah, you know, you're right. We'll figure it out somehow. Stupid T.I.L.”  
“What?”  
“T.I.L.,” Peter repeated slowly, nodding towards the screen. Wade looked up and saw several lines of data with the abbreviation up front. “It shows up so many times, always with different amounts of money being transferred.”   
“Huh ...”  
“What?”  
“I've heard that name before … I just can't … remember where …,” Wade mumbled, reading the name over and over again to find the memory of it. He remembered that it was a plain font, blue and white.  
“Maybe on some kind of billboard outside? We still haven't found out where it's even located,” Peter replied, leaning his head back against the chair and Wade's hands, frustration audible in his voice.   
“No, not outside...”  
“Well, please do tell me when you remember. I am ready to throw that laptop out of the window,” Peter sighed, while Wade continued to work his lover's tense muscles.   
“Then it's really time for a break. C'mon, turn that thing off … so I can turn you on.”  
That made him laugh, Wade grinned as Peter quickly pushed some buttons and a moment later the screen went black.   
“Yeah, maybe everything will make sense in the morning,” he said, but didn't sound all that convinced. Wade continued his massage until he didn't feel too much resistance from Peter's muscles anymore.   
“Wanna watch a movie? Have some tea?”  
“Yes to both. And so much yes to all of this in bed.”  
Wade laughed quietly and swivelled Peter's chair around again. They shared a long look into each other’s eyes, then Wade leaned down and softly kissed Peter’s lips. Wade just opened his mouth to say something when his brain rudely interrupted him.   
**Let’s just do him! He won’t be able to worry anymore when we’re done with him!**  
Wade squeezed his eyes shut at the loud laughing in his mind.   
“Wade?”  
 _Hey, he’s calling us. – Oh, remember couple days ago when we sliced that one guy’s head off? Fun times, fun times._  
“Ugh,” Wade whimpered, pressing both hands onto his head. His eyes opened suddenly when soft hands were placed on his.   
“Wade, what is it? Can you hear me?”  
“Yeah,” the older man managed to get out, trying desperately to fight for some silence.

Somehow Peter was standing next to him a moment later, soft, strong hands on Wade’s shoulders.   
“Come on, let’s go to bed, it’s been a few long days,” Peter said and Wade could only sigh in agreement. Peter led Wade into the bedroom and sat him down on the edge of the bed before getting him some water to sip on.   
“Getting better?” he asked, worry clear in his voice, as he knelt down in front of Wade.   
“Yeah. I guess.”  
“Let’s lie down, relax a bit.”  
Wade just hummed, throwing his shirt and pants onto the ground before sliding into bed. He smiled when Peter put on the movie instead – one they’d already seen, not much concentration required.   
When he wiggled under the blanket next to Wade, Peter immediately reached out to entwine their fingers, getting as close as possible.   
“How are you feeling?” Peter asked and tried to sound casual, but Wade knew he was worried. Always would be, no matter how small those issues were compared to when Wade was still all alone with everything.   
“Good, better now, at least. I dunno what’s happening.”  
“What do you mean?” Peter asked and turned to the side, one hand on Wade’s chest, right over his heart. Wade smiled, because this gesture never failed to calm him down.   
“I ... I don’t know ... how to explain ...,” Wade mumbled, feeling his head go weirdly cloudy again, like it didn’t in a long time. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers, sighing and wishing he could just hug Bea. Not quite sure where that thought had come from, Wade comforted himself by leaning over and turning on the baby monitor. He saw Bea on the little screen, sleeping sprawled out in her bed.  
“Are you ... feeling worse again? I thought it’d gotten better,” Peter tried, carefully choosing his words, although Wade wasn’t in the slightest offended by Peter talking about his mental state.   
“Yeah, it was. I don’t know, but ... like, it’s weird, okay? The longer I’m away ... from here, from you and Bea ... the worse it gets.”  
Peter hummed at that and when Wade looked over to him, he saw in his lover’s eyes that his mind was running a mile a minute.  
“So ... do you think ... it’s psychological? Or actually physical uneasiness ... I mean, your skin, if it’s alright for me to say, has gotten worse again, too.”  
“You can say whatever you want, you know that. And yeah, I’ve noticed. I dunno what’s happening, really. I just know that I’m _both_ physically and psychologically better when I’m with the two of you.”  
“Huh,” Peter mumbled, falling silent for a while, obviously thinking about Wade's words. “Do you think … Bea has something to do with it?”  
“That she's causing it? Dunno. I don't have fancy shmancy psychic abilities, so why should she have them?” Wade replied, looking over to the monitor again.   
“Well, you do have an immunity to mind control.”  
“Duh, 'cause my mind is fucked up.”  
“Well, what if … she got some more of your abilities, other than the healing factor?”  
“So .... you mean she could be psychic?”  
“Yeah.”  
Wade thought about that for a moment, then shrugged.   
“Nah, I mean, I can do a lot, but I don’t think that’s possible.”  
Peter only hummed, but didn’t seem to convinced by Wade’s words.   
“Well, maybe she does just calm you.”  
“She does. You do, too. I’m always happy when I’m with you,” Wade said softly, stretching out an arm to slide them around Peter’s shoulders, drawing the younger man into a hug. Peter’s head rested on Wade’s shoulder and everything felt a whole lot better.   
“We’re happy to have you back,” Peter replied, leaning up to brush a kiss to Wade’s jaw, making him smile. 

They watched the movie all the way through and Peter turned off the lights and TV when Wade’s eyes fell shut. He smiled when he felt his cold mask from he fridge on his face, something that always kept his headaches in check. 

 

In the morning, Wade actually felt a lot better, and got up with Peter when their alarm rang. He went over to the nursery, where Bea was rustling around in her crib already.   
“Good morning, my princess,” Wade greeted happily, laughing when a dishevelled blonde head poked up.   
“Papa!” Bea shouted and Wade’s heart felt so full that all he could do was laugh.   
“Aw, my sweet girl, I missed you all night. Give me a big kiss, will you?” Wade asked and lifted Bea out of the bed. She clung to his shoulders right away and kissed him a bit too noisily, but it was pretty cute.   
“Did you sleep well? Any exciting dreams?” he asked and carried Bea over to the changing table. She mumbled something that he didn’t understand, then signed for milk with a rather pleading look in her eyes.   
”Aw, baby, we’ll have breakfast in a moment. I’ll just change your diaper, then you can have lotsa yummy food in your tummy, alright?” Wade cooed, not even caring that Peter could probably hear him over in the kitchen. The number of things that Wade was embarrassed about lowered day to day. 

Wade didn’t bother dressing Bea just yet, because she was so hungry. He’d take care of that later, or maybe Peter wanted to pick her outfit that day.   
“Daddyyy!” Bea shouted as soon as they were in the hallway, making Wade laugh.   
“Daddy, we’re so hungry!” he chimed in and heard Peter laugh as well.   
“All set and ready for you guys,” Peter said when they entered the living area. Bea reached out for him and Peter kissed her cheeks and hugged her. “Good morning, cutie. Let’s have some yummy breakfast.”  
Bea nodded eagerly and picked up her spoon as soon as she was in her high chair, eating already when Peter strapped her into the chair. She finished up a whole bowl of yoghurt, cereal and fruit, then ate a portion of scrambled eggs and half a toast with butter.   
“Man, you sure put some food away, little girl,” Wade mentioned astonished when she was chugging her milk out of a sippy cup.   
“Maybe she’s having another growth spurt soon,” Peter mumbled and took another slice of bacon. Bea eyed it, but didn’t want any.   
“Nah, she needs to stay little for a while longer for me to cuddle her. Like, at least another twenty years or so. Then she can maybe grow a bit, but, like, only a foot.”

After lunch Wade offered to clean up the table so that Peter could get Bea dressed for the day. Peter knew Wade would have loved to keep her with him, but he wanted to go to the hardware store to get some supplied for remodelling the other apartments. Two of the tenants had already moved out and Wade wanted to start as soon as possible so they could offer them up for rent soon.   
“So, what are you gonna wear today?” Peter mused as he stood in front of Bea’s wardrobe, eyeing the selection. Wade _loved_ seeing her in frilly dresses, ruffles, tutus, bows and everything girly and pretty. Well, Peter actually quite liked that, too. Bea was just too cute.   
But today Peter wanted to put her into something she could play in, run around and move. So he chose a pair of pants that looked like denim, but were actually quite soft and with a stretchy waistband. Peter topped off the outfit with a black shirt with some glitter on it, and a black bow for Bea’s hair – he didn’t even try anything more elaborate than a ponytail.   
“Wow, wow, wow, who’s that rock ‘n roll girl over there?” Wade asked with a big grin on his face when Bea came back into the kitchen. She smiled and pointed to the glitter on her shirt. “Whoa, even glitter, how rad. You’re gonna be the coolest baby at daycare!”  
Bea laughed and Peter wasn’t sure whether she did or did not understand Wade. The older man had already laid out their jackets and dressed Bea carefully, not making too big of a deal when he adjusted her bow. 

“I'll come pick her up at noon-ish? So we can have lunch together,” Wade offered and Peter agreed right away, liking the idea of a lunch break with his family. He put on his jacket and shoes.  
“Yeah, that'd be great. You ready to play, Bea?” Peter asked her, and she jumped around.   
“Yeah!” she shouted, which made both Wade and Peter so happy, just because they could hear her voice.   
“Then let's go. Say bye bye to Papa.”   
Bea thought about that for about a second, then she hugged Wade tight, kissing his cheek.  
“Bye, Papa,” she mumbled and Wade grinned, kissing her cheeks and making her giggle.   
“See you later, my love. Have fun at the daycare,” Wade said and adjusted Bea's jacket. “No boys, no drugs, no fighting – unless they deserve it, then kick ‘em in the nuts. Go make Papa proud.”  
Peter giggled at that, then he kissed Wade and left the apartment, Bea holding his hand while they were in the elevator. They’d actually take the subway today, because Wade needed the car, so Peter made sure to let Bea have an adventure, letting her pay for their tickets and looking at a train arrive and depart before they boarded theirs. 

 

Back at home, Wade hummed along to a song on the radio. He felt absolutely glorious, and even better when he took out all the cash from the safe in the bedroom – he’d planned to install one in every apartment, ‘cause it was a nice feature to have.  
There were three big black bags of bills in the safe – those that you can get at a bank when you have to carry very large amounts of cash, leave it to this special customer of his to even deliver the payments with style.   
He took out a few bills, then some more because he might just do some grocery shopping with Bea in the afternoon, while he was at it. She always loved the free samples, and because of her Wade finally got some for himself as well. Before, when he was alone, the clerks would stare at him so much, and sometimes like they expected him to steal – which, hey, he almost never did. 

After stuffing the money into his wallet, Wade went down to the first two apartments that were actually empty and took a look around. When the shopping list on his phone was finished, Wade peeked into the janitor's closets in each hallway and decided which ones to tear down based on how big the apartments on the floor were.   
A bit later he was already throwing all sorts of things into his shopping cart at the hardware store, eventually having to get a second cart. It took forever getting everything he needed, but Wade refused to go again anytime soon.   
Loading everything into the car took about half an hour, but it felt great for Wade to achieve something, so when it was time to unload all the materials back home, he took the stairs, carrying it all. He was in such a good mood today and it only got better when he moved and felt his heart beat in his chest and his muscles burn with the exercise.

When everything he needed was distributed, Wade went upstairs to their place to get some fresh clothes, since he would be picking Bea up soon. He couldn’t wait to see his best girl again, thought about maybe getting a treat for them on the way and greet her with it at the daycare. Wade grinned just imagining her surprised, happy smile. 

Being the super productive, good husband he was, Wade took off his clothes and stuffed them into the washing machine right away, turning it on, even. He wandered over to the office area to empty out the bin before he left, one last thing to do on his chore list.   
When he passed by the computer, the memories of his last conversation with Peter came to mind, when Wade massaged Peter’s tense shoulders and looked onto his computer screen, the cause of all his lover’s long hours of work. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, another memory hit Wade. He gasped, staring off into nothing for a moment, then cursing.   
Realizing, finally, where he’d seen the name on Peter’s computer, Wade jumped up, dressing himself hurriedly before running to the door. If he was lucky, the police had only taken the body and collected some evidence. He could still get what they needed. Within a minute, he was in out the door and inside the car, steering it through the city traffic with screeching tires – right towards his last mark’s workplace.   
A.k.a. the place where Wade’d killed him. 

While he waited at the last red light, Wade took out a pair of black sunglasses, putting them on, as well as pulling the hood of his sweater up over his beanie. Out of the glove box, the Merc got a pair of black leather gloves and a small pack of metal sticks that he shoved into the pocket of his jacket. 

Still mentally yelling at himself for not remembering earlier, Wade parked the car two blocks away and walked back to the house he’d visited during his last job. On the outside of the building there were a lot of ads, most of them by big companies who’d bought a place for their billboards. The four lowest levels were all offices of lawyers, tax assistants and – like his last mark – aspiring politicians.   
Wade looked around, strolling down the street and then into an alleyway that lead to the back of the houses. The way was just wide enough for a small delivery truck to get through.  
Wade followed the street all around the building and looked up. A rusty ladder was attached to the first floor, and Wade took two steps back, jumped up and held onto the ladder. It didn’t budge, which fit the run-down look of the place pretty well. Of course the fronts of the houses were freshly painted and cleaned, but in the back it looked just like in the minds of the people who ran those businesses – dirty and broken.   
Wade climbed onto the metal staircase and found the door jammed and creaking, but eventually open for him. His steps echoed in the empty hallway, and it wasn’t hard to spot the target – the door to the guy’s private rooms and office were sealed with yellow tape.  
Wade rolled his eyes and carefully peeled it off on one side, attaching it to the other side so that it wouldn’t stick together.   
He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a bunch of lock picks, kneeling down on one knee, then sliding them into the lock. The Merc smirked when a satisfying click sounded and the door moved back. 

The room was just like Wade had last seen it, just a bit more dusty and minus the dead body in front of the safe. There was a stain of dried blood on the floor, and it smelled just awful because nobody had opened the windows. 

Wade looked around for just a second, then he strode over to the desk, his eyes falling on the company name that Peter’s talked about. There it was “T.I.L.” in big blue and white letters.   
Wade took the first few documents and folded them quickly, stuffing them into the inside pocket of his leather jacket. There was more on that stack, but Wade couldn’t just take all of it, that’d be obvious to every police officer who’d investigate again.   
Taking out his phone, Wade mused over the contents of the safe while he snapped photos of the other documents, just in case. The safe would be obvious, too, Wade decided, and glanced underneath the desk, but of course the computer was missing already, confiscated by the authorities.   
When he reached out to go through another stack of papers on the desk, Wade’s personal phone chimed, reminding him that he would have to pick up Bea in fifteen minutes.   
But from his current location to the Tower he’d need twenty-five at best.  
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, _fuck_ ,” Wade hissed, hurrying out of the room and attaching the tape to the door again. 

His phone beeped again when he was just on the street, reminding him again that it was almost time. Wade clenched his teeth, making the car shake with how hurried he jumped inside. The motor wailed when Wade turned it up fast, making the tires spin and screech.   
He probably broke at least twenty traffic laws but to his own surprise – and eternal relief that he was in fact not the worst father in the world – Wade made it in time.   
He practically ran into the daycare floor after he’d scanned his bracelet on the door and it buzzed before sliding open.   
Wade just about remembered his black sunglasses and took them off, clipping them to the front of his shirt, then he also carefully pulled off his hat, so he wouldn’t look like some kind of creep. Well, with his skin he figured he’d always looked like this, but he could do something at least. 

Not sure where to go or what to do, Wade stood in the hallway for a moment, taking in the scene. The hallway connected to several rooms, where it was of course pretty loud, but cheerfully so. It was colorful and happy, and Wade could hear children laugh, which just made him long for Bea more.   
He just decided to go and look for a nanny when Wade heard a familiar voice.  
“Papa!” Bea yelled, suddenly running down the hallway towards him, a big smile on her face. Wade grinned, kneeling down to catch her in his arms.   
“Ah, my princess, I missed you,” Wade sighed, feeling all the tension of his little trip leave him at once. Lifting her up, Wade took a moment just to hold her and feel happiness trickling into his system like rain on a roof. “Let’s go get some yummy food.”  
“Papa, look, look!” she suddenly said and Wade noticed that must be one of her new words, since he’d never heard it at home. She pointed to one of the open doors and Wade took some steps towards it.  
“Oh, is that your room?” he asked, peering inside. It was filled with toys and kids and overall looked like a paradise for toddlers.  
“Yeah.”  
“How pretty,” Wade said and quickly ducked back into the hallway, so none of the kids had to see his face. Bea might not be troubled by it, but he really didn’t want to start a chorus of screaming and crying just because he showed his mug. Weirdly enough it wasn’t one of the kids Wade heard soon after.

“Beatrice!” a woman shouted and Wade instinctively held her tighter, looking around. A nanny came rushing towards them. Her eyes went wide for a moment when she saw Wade, but she was pretty good at composing herself again.   
“Hi, uh ... I’m here to pick her up,” Wade said right away, showing his bracelet so she didn’t think he’d abduct her or something.   
“Oh, yeah, sure. But I have to scan your bracelet, Mr. Parker,” she huffed and took a little gadget from her belt. Wade just about kept from correcting her, reminding himself that the nannies knew he’d taken on Peter’s last name for real. “Excuse my shouting, but she has just run off.”  
It was just now that Wade saw that all the doorways were secured with baby gates but the one in front of the room Bea’d pointed to was open. “She must’ve seen me open it,” the nanny said apologetically and Wade nodded.   
“Yeah, she’s got ... kind of a talent for that.”   
Wade had a hard time to hide his grin, because of course his daughter would break laws. Still, he looked at Bea, who’d turned her head from the conversation, looking very innocent.   
“Bea, you can’t just go outside. When you’re here, you stay with that lady, alright?”   
She nodded, her eyes big and round, so cute that Wade fought with himself not to cave in and tell her it’s alright. “Good, then tell her you’re sorry.”  
Bea turned, signing “sorry”, making the nanny smile.   
“It’s okay, thank you for apologizing. Now, you gonna go have lunch with Daddy?” she asked and Bea nodded happily, watching as the woman ran a reader over Bea’s bracelet. The gadget blinked green again and they were all set.   
Wade decided not to shake the woman’s hand, because she’d really put on a brave face to even stand close to him, so why bother her further. Stepping out into the main hallway with Bea, Wade took a second to look around.   
“So, little Bea, what would you like for lunch?” Wade asked, while slowly continuing down the main hall. Bea thought about the question for a moment, then she smiled.   
“Noo’l.”  
“Huh?”  
“Noo’l!”  
“Oh, noodles?”  
“Yeah.”  
Wade laughed, unable to keep from it because Bea’s voice sounded so damn cute.   
“Then we’ll get you some noodles. But first, we gotta find Daddy, I’ve got something real good for him. Helps him with all that work he has,” Wade explained as they stood in front of the elevator and he showed Bea which button she could push.   
”Daddy?”   
“Yeah. But we gotta go on a little adventure to find him,” Wade said and smiled at Bea, who grinned brightly. “Time for your first ever breaking and entering, little cutie,” he joked, and waited until the sound of the approaching elevator cabin was very near. This was the surest way the security cameras might not be too focused on them, so Wade could quickly walk over to the emergency exit.   
The door was of course unlocked, had to be in case of a fire, so Wade just went into the stairway.  
“Psst, this is a super secret mission,” Wade told Bea, loving the big eyes she made when he whispered. “Can you be my super spy helper?”  
“Yeah,” Bea whispered, which was just the sweetest thing. Wade thought he might just stay home with her forever, because she made him so unbelievably happy. 

On the lab floor, Wade stepped through the emergency exit again, looking around the blue-ish tinted walls and lots of chrome and glass everywhere.   
“Daddy,” Bea said, still quietly, pointing to one of the glass walls that were all around. He saw Peter standing at a glass tube, both arms inside. Wade walked up to the door and knocked on it with his knuckles, then barely kept Bea from slapping her hands against the glass.   
Peter turned, his eyes widening, mouthing Wade’s name, but of course he wasn’t heard outside. He said something else and suddenly the door next to them hissed, sliding open.

“Wade? What are you doing here?“ Peter asked, taking off his gloves and leaving them inside the glass tube with his latest chemical tests. There was a woman next to him that Wade didn't know, but guesses that it had to be Julia from how Peter'd described her. On the far end of the lab, a man sat at a desk lined with holographic monitors, working on some kind of data, and Wade wondered where the rest of the team was, since Peter'd said they were five alltogether.

“Daddy!”  
Bea’s steps echoed through the lab as she ran over to Peter, a happy smile on her face.   
“I gotta show you something!” Wade started, taking the stack of papers from his jacket.   
Bea began pulling on Peter’s labcoat and pointing towards all kinds of things in the lab.   
“Please don’t touch anything, baby,” Peter mumbled and looked at Wade, who shot him an apologetic look. Something about the papers in Wade’s hands had Peter’s Spidey-sense tingling and he quickly lifted Bea up.   
“Hey how about I show you some cool stuff on my computer?” he offered and Bea nodded happily. Peter forced himself to smile for Bea while he accessed the internet through a secure connection and put on some Disney princess videos for her. He took out a set of big headphones from a drawer next to the desk, putting them on Bea’s head.   
Yes, his browser history was recorded and reviewed by the Tower’s security, but Peter could live with it if it meant Bea wasn’t touching anything potentially dangerous.   
From the lowest drawer in his desk Peter got a cookie – sugar helped with thinking – and gave it to Bea. He wasn’t usually one for having her being babysat by candy and videos, but that was a different situation. 

“She’s probably thinking of your work like a magical place now,” Wade joked quietly while arranging the documents he brought on a big glass table. Immediately a blue beam ran over them from one end to the other, scanning and filing them on the team’s drive. Peter told Dee to wait with saving until he knew what it was.   
_”As you wish.”_  
“Fancy,” Wade mumbled, looking around. 

“So what’s all that, account info?” Peter asked quietly, while the other two pretended to not listen to them.   
“Kinda. Look at this one.”  
Peter leaned in ad examined the numbers. Several larger sums – always different to not look suspicious – were all transferred to a company – seemingly for building materials and services.   
It was just the name of the recipient that struck Peter’s nerves.   
“T.I.L.?”  
“Yup. I was sure I’ve seen it somewhere, and I realized this morning that it was my last mark’s place. So I went back in before the police got there and ... liberated some of that stuff for you,” Wade explained, keeping his voice low enough on the last sentence that only the two of them heard.   
“That's … that's so dangerous, Wade, but I'm really, really grateful right now,” Peter admitted and quickly hugged his husband.   
“So, does that help?” Wade asked happily, nodding to the table. “You can keep it, just don't tell anybody I got it.”  
“Yeah, I think it helps a great deal. We finally got somewhere to start. - Have you heard anything else on this company? Are they doing illegal work?”  
Wade shrugged, watching as Peter pulled out a stylus pen and wrote his notes directly onto the glass surface of the table, making them appear in a document on a holographic screen.  
“Not before, but I generally don't just go through my mark's correspondence.”  
“Yeah … uh …,” Peter looked around for a moment, seeing that the others mindfully did not look into their direction, but were probably still trying to eavesdrop.   
“Follow me,” Peter whispered, shooting a look to Bea, who was perfectly occupied by the candy and computer.   
“Oooh. Wanna make out or somethin’?”  
“Wade!” Peter hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose. The Merc grinned, but walked to a small room with only a table, a monitor and four chairs in it, that was connected to the lab. One of the walls was glass as well, letting them see Bea still.   
Peter closed the door and leaned his back against it.   
“Wade, where exactly did you find the documents?”  
The Merc's face sobered up and he glanced over to the lab and at Bea.   
“On the guy's desk. Right on top, on a massive stack of documents. I looked through the other stuff, took some pictures in case it's also important, but taking everything would have been super obvious,” he answered and Peter nodded, taking Wade's work phone that he was holding out. He flicked through the images, sending some that showed different company names over to his secure mail account to later have Dee open them.   
“And what did you do there?” he asked while still checking the pictures.  
“Uh, duh, Merc stuff?” Wade replied in confusion, but Peter quickly shook his head.   
“No, sorry, wrong question. _Why_ were you hired to do it?”  
“Oh. Uhm. I did business with the guy who hired me before. He always pays a lot and on time, and never requests too crazy stuff. I guess he's actually one of the good guys, but, yeah, labels. He only ever wants me to … take care … of corrupt people. People who could endanger his businesses by their methods, lobbying and so on. I am to get rid of them so he can continue fighting for good causes. You know lobbying is a crazy thing, right? Those people have no conscience.”  
“Yeah, I know. Did your … employer say what your mark was involved in? Business-wise?”  
“Not much. My “employer” is a politician, wants to become mayor sometime soon, but the other guy just buys himself into all kinds of pre-election polls and whatnot. And also seems to have connections to the mafia, but I really don't have proof for that.”  
“Alright, that helps a lot,” Peter said with a smile, feeling a lot of tension leaving him just because now they had some names, addresses, finally something comprehensible.   
“You're welcome. So … we're gonna make out now?”  
“No, Wade!” Peter blurted out but they both giggled.  
“Not even one “awesome-helpful-husband”-kiss?”  
“One,” Peter allowed, leaning forward and holding onto the lapels of Wade's jacket. The older man hummed into the kiss, placing his hands onto Peter's hips before tilting his head to deepen their kiss. Much too soon they had to part, just to maintain somewhat of a professional behaviour.   
“Man, that sure was one kiss,” Wade huffed and grinned when Peter smirked.   
“Had to make it count.”

They left the little conference room again and Wade went over to get Bea from the computer, where she was still watching princesses dancing over the screen.   
“No, no!” she argued when Wade took the headphones off. The Merc looked perplexed, because it hadn't yet happened that she disagreed with anything. Sure sometimes she pouted, but since she hadn't been able to talk before, there hadn't been any arguments.   
“Ey, where does that word come from? Don't you give Papa a hard time. C'mon, we gotta get some food,” Wade said, still with his hairless brows furrowed. Peter watched the scene from his desk, ready to jump up should Bea have a meltdown.   
But she just pointed to the screen again and babbled something, but Wade made her get off the chair.   
“Don't gimme that look, baby. C'mon, I'm feeling bad enough,” Wade whined, putting the headphones back and turning off the monitor, maybe to show Bea they really were going.   
“Papa!” she complained, and her lower lip quivered, so Peter had to step in. He got down on one knee next to Bea, taking one of her little hands in his. If they didn't want the contents of the lab floating around anytime soon, there was a distraction needed.  
“Baby, you wanna go have lunch with us? We have a really cool cafeteria here, you wanna go see it?” he asked, making sure to sound like it was the most exciting thing in the world. Bea's pout slowly vanished, but she still didn't smile as she nodded.   
“Alright, then take Papa's hand, I'm gonna be right there,” Peter said and gestured for Wade to leave the lab already, before he took off his lab coat, placing it onto his desk.   
“Lunch break, guys!” he called and the others acknowledged this with nods or hums.

Peter quickly followed Wade and Bea, who were waiting outside. Bea still looked a bit grumpy, so Peter took her free hand and they walked through the hallway together, each of them holding one of Bea's hands.   
“How did you guys even get in here?” Peter asked quietly once they were through a heavy security door.   
“Oh, y’know ... walked right in,” Wade laughed, with Bea looking up to him.  
“Really? Or did you pick a door?”  
“No, honey, I swear we just walked in here. Right, Bea? We took the stairs?”  
Bea nodded, but looked at Peter and signed that she was hungry, freeing her hand only from a second.   
“We’re gonna have food in a moment, baby. ... so you’re telling me that nobody stopped you? What’s with security in this place?” Peter asked in confusion, wondering why there wasn’t even an alarm.   
“Well, you gotta know the right people. And I know my princess over here who mustn’t be startled. So no alarms, no bulky guys stopping us.”  
“That’s ... a little weird.”  
”I’m not, like, using her or something,” Wade apologized, hairless brows drawn together.   
“Oh, honey, I didn’t think that,” Peter huffed right away. “I’m thankful that you guys came here to bring the documents, really. I was just wondering.”  
“Well, Stark has probably seen us, and he will want to know what I was doing at your lab. But I figured I couldn't just leave stolen stuff at the front desk for you.”  
“Yeah. Well, Stark can know, he’s my boss after all.”  
They went into the elevator and let Bea push the button. She seemed curious and jumped around when the elevator doors opened. But when she saw that there were already a lot of people in the cafeteria, she took a step back.   
“Don’t be shy, baby,” Peter said soothingly and took her hand so they could walk out. Bea stayed half a step behind Peter and Wade, hiding a bit as they went into the cafeteria. Wade eventually took Bea up on his arms so that she could look at the food.   
“Our mission with the noodles is still on?” Wade asked her, and she nodded happily. Peter didn't know what that was about, but he loved seeing Wade and Bea together like that. They shared a tray for the food and Bea even asked for some vegetables with her noodles. 

“I think they also offer a lunch service at the daycare, I wondered if we should sign up,” Peter said, but of course Wade shook his head.   
“I can get her at noon. I really don't want her to be away all day, she's so little and cute,” Wade cooed and pinched Bea's cheek, making her laugh. Peter smirked, but agreed, since he knew Bea was making Wade so happy. And he still suspected her to do something for his health as well, even though he didn't have any proof for that. 

When their plates were empty and Wade had wiped the tomato sauce from Bea's face, it was time for Peter to leave for the lab again.   
“I hope the stuff can help you guys,” Wade mentioned when he lifted Bea off the chair, holding her hand so she didn't run off. Bea mumbled something and lifted her arms, demanding to be picked up again. Wade did, hugging her close as always.   
“I'm sure it will, honey. Thank you,” Peter said and brushed a chaste kiss on Wade's cheek, then on Bea's, who smirked. “Got any plans for the afternoon?”  
“I think we'll go shopping after little miss DP's nap, and then I'll do some more work while she plays. - Any wishes for dinner?”  
By now they'd left the cafeteria already, waiting for the elevator to bring Wade and Bea to the parking garage, and Peter to his lab. Peter slid Bea's daycare bag – a very cute backpack featuring Hello Kitty – onto Wade's shoulder.   
“No, surprise me,” Peter answered and leaned in for another kiss.  
“Daddy!” Bea said, leaning forward and making Peter grin.   
“You want a kiss, too?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Can you say 'kiss, please'?”  
“Ki ' pleeese.”  
“Close enough,” Peter acknowledged while Wade giggled over Bea's cute voice. Peter kissed her cheek a few times and made her giggle. 

 

Back at the lab, still a big smile on his face, Peter found his full team assembled again. Emily and Phillip had been out for the morning – Emily was picking up new equipment and Phillip had requested half a day off for personal reasons. Given how Peter was always on and off while handling work and family, he was the last one to decline that.   
“We've got some more data, please no questions where it came from,” Peter announced once they were all set and ready to work some more. Julia said nothing, but from the photos on Peter's desk she knew his husband had just visited and brought some documents. 

“Cool, what's the news?” Phillip asked, his eyes already scanning the big screen. Peter took out a laser pointer and highlighted some lines of his notes.   
“We found out that T.I.L. stands for Thornton International Logistics and is registered to ship bulky goods, mostly building material. I’m pretty sure HYDRA never needed and two by fours,” Peter added and Phillip hummed.  
“Maybe they “bought” something from that company and then paid them, pretending that the delivery had arrived, so they could launder money.”  
Peter saw how Julia furrowed her brows.   
“But then the money must’ve gone back to HYDRA somehow,” she said, running her index finger over her chin, a habit Peter had observed often in her. By now, they were all standing close around the table, staring at the data.   
“Maybe the guy who runs T.I.L. has some more pretend companies. Let’s the money run through some of them and they pretend to want to buy something from either Hydra a.k.a some kind of base directly, or another fake company that belongs to Hydra. Then the money’s back where it came from, nice and clean,” Emily explained, drawing a little shematic while she spoke. Her brother nodded slowly.   
“Wouldn’t be the first time this is done. It creates so much data connected with that one transaction that the real source gets lost,” Preston, the team's hacker, explained.   
“Not to us, I hope?” Peter mumbled, shoting a glance at his software specialist, but he just shook his sand colored hair.   
“Can’t say. I can try my best, but ... well, it’s be easier if I had some digital access point, like a computer that was involved in those transactions.”  
There was a brief silence and Peter weighed his options. Whether or not the case justified the means.   
Well, they probably did, seeing what – or who – they worked for. 

So Peter took the stylus pen out of his pocket and wrote a code on the table that would disable Dee for a moment. The others stared at him in surprise.  
“I might know a way to get it. No word gets out of this room about it, should the computer turn up here,” Peter said, looking each of his team members in the eyes when they nodded. They probably didn’t know a lot about Wade, which was good. 

“Until then, let’s do some work with what we got: Preston, go ahead and see if you can find out more about this address. Then find out what’s to say about these company names here,” Peter ordered, pushing the data over to the left end of the screen, making them fly through the wireless connection to his co-worker’s monitor. Preston took one look at the data, then nodded.   
“On it.”  
“Emily, Julia, in addition to what you’re already working on ... let the programmes alert you should one of the DNA samples show a healing factor. And then save these separately, preferably with the “donor’s” DNA if we could find it.”  
The two women nodded and Peter thought about adding Bea’s file to the batch they were already working on. He decided against it, because he didn’t want Wade’s data to be on display for all of them. They already knew that Bea was Wade’s only remaining child from the facilities, so it would be futile to add her. Also, her healing factor derived directly from his, so there was no use in working with that. They needed to find out why some children had a healing factor and some hadn’t. And why in those latest babies it was so strong that they survived in the middle of an explosion, while in some it was just about enough to heal a broken bone in a week and not a month.  
Peter went back to work with Phillip, because they still had to find out why people involved in politics and the military would do business with Hydra.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thursday ^^ Hope you're all doing well, only two more days 'till the weekend <3  
> I've got another little something for you ;) Klick [here!](http://yourprincessluna.deviantart.com/art/Spideypool-Tangled-Up-592969136)

Peter came home late that day, and kind of frustrated. They had gotten a great deal of info from the documents, but there was barely any other trace on the available sources. It was like none of those companies mentioned had any business in the real world, which was probably exactly how it was. They had to be used for laundering money, but since everything associated with them was kept so tightly under wraps, they couldn't even find out which banks the accounts were held at. 

Of course it was Bea and Wade who managed to bring a smile back to Peter's lips, as they both entertained him with stories of their day.  
“They made super cute bead bracelets at the daycare today, look at that, high fashion in the house!” Wade announced, showing his wrist where a set of wooden beads were lined up on a black strap. One of them was even shaped like a heart.  
Peter faintly remembered hearing about it from the daycare teachers, but he must've forgotten it was today. They'd probably put it in Bea's bag before they left.  
“Wow, that's a masterpiece,” Peter said, seeing Bea grin.  
“Yeah, well, worth the drama,” Wade mumbled and turned to the stove again to stir one of the pots.  
“Huh? What drama?”  
“Well, little miss DP over there had sort of a breakdown when we lost the bracelet in the car. Lucky us that it came flying right to the front seat while she cried,” Wade sighed, looking over to Peter apologetically. “It might have taken me a bit longer to calm her down.”  
“That’s alright, she can take her time, but it’s important that she does eventually calm down.”  
“Instead of going into mutant baby overdrive. – I should, like, get a shortcut to her song into the board computer of the car.”  
“Yeah, I’ve thought about that, too, but didn’t get around to,” Peter replied while taking off his sneakers.  
“I'll get it done,” Wade promised and Peter was secretly proud of him for managing driving the car through the no doubt busy city traffic while having a screaming baby in the back. He may say differently, but Peter was sure Wade's issues had gotten a lot better around Bea. The Merc had been on a good way before, the stability that their marriage provided giving him a good solid base to work from, but ever since they got Bea he's been so much better still. 

 

That night, it was Wade's turn to cuddle Bea while Peter sat on the floor of the nursery and read both of them a story. Bea lay curled up in Wade's lap, his strong arms cradling her softly. By the end of the story her lids drooped already and she rubbed her cheek on Wade's shirt every now and then.  
She watched sleepily as they turned on her night light and the baby monitor, then clutched her bear to her chest when Wade put her down in the crib.  
“Sleep tight, little princess. We love you,” he whispered and leaned over to kiss her head, Peter doing just the same. She curled up under her blanket and was probably fast asleep the moment the door closed. 

They cleaned up the apartment together, Peter starting the dryer and Wade the dishwasher before they went to the living room.  
“You want something to drink?” Wade asked when he got a bottle of water from the fridge.  
“No, thanks. Sit down with me,” Peter said and patted the cushion next to him. A questioning look crossed Wade’s face but he went over and sat down.  
”What is it, honey?” he wanted to know, and furrowed his brows when Peter sighed.  
“I ... I hate to do this ... but I have to ask a favor of you.”  
“Man, Spidey, for a moment there I thought I’d done something bad. Don’t you scare me like that!”  
Peter smirked, leaning his head against Wade’s shoulder. Instantly, the older man's arms were around him, holding him securely.  
“Sorry. But I’m really uncomfortable asking that of you,” Peter admitted, usually being the first one to promote a respectable career path for Wade. Still, if they wanted to make any progress there was one thing they really needed. And as Spiderman he couldn't just run around an area with security cameras.  
Next to him, Wade shrugged his shoulders, turning his head minutely to brush a kiss against Peter's temple, making the younger man smile.  
“Ask away, I don’t mind. Is it butt stuff?”  
“No butt stuff.”  
“Aaah, you blushin’!”  
“Wade, please,” Peter mumbled, but felt the heat in his cheeks. He shook his head and turned a bit to look into Wade’s eyes. “It’s quite serious ... you know your last mark? We ... we need his computer.”  
“But the police took it. – Goddamnit those officials, Imma go steal that shit back!” Wade huffed, wanting to get up, but Peter caught his sleeve, then his arm and held him back.  
”Wait! You ... I don’t want you to be seen doing it. Please, you can say no, we could get the Avengers or SI to officially confiscate it or something. I’m ... worried about your reputation.”  
“You know what, _fuck_ my reputation. It’s never been good. And you need that computer, the authorities will take forever giving it back, and we don’t have that time,” Wade said, already pulling out his smartphone. “So tell me, sweet Spidey of mine, which station took it?”  
“It's probably here,” Peter answered, relieved about the help, and pointed to a location on the map.  
“Alright. Yeah, I've gotten into that one before – someone's gettn' a visit from the ol' DP.”  
“But … please be careful. And you can still say no,” Peter insisted, but Wade just shook his head.  
“It's a yes. And for you I'll even lower my rates.”  
“Oh?” Peter asked with a smirk, eager to know what would be following. Wade turned, smirking, after having set a pin on his digital map.  
“Yeah, I'll get paid in advance per hour of work I put in, so I guess … hm, so for you, that's, like, two hours maybe, so one kiss for every 30 minutes.”  
Peter laughed, leaning over to complete the “payment”.  
“And what about when the deal is done?”, Peter asked, his lips still brushing his lover's. Wade laughed, his hold around Peter getting firmer.  
“Let’s see ... for the whole deal I usually charge about forty thousand, since it’s just a bit of theft. So for you, Imma be all nice ... let’s make that one minute for every hundred dollars.”  
“So 400 minutes .. of what?”  
“Of being inside you.”  
“Wade, that’s about six and a half hours,” Peter giggled after some quick calculations.  
“Well, you better prepare, then.”  
They both laughed, but Wade mentioned that Peter could also pay in instalments, which had Peter guess that in fact the older man had been serious about it.  
“Then I'll take three easy rates of only two hours, and the last half hour I'll just surprise you with?” Peter offered, grinning when Wade's eyes darkened.  
“And I will have to get a pre-payment on the first rate. Like, now,” Wade insisted, so they left for the bedroom quietly, only sharing more quips and giggles when the doors were closed behind them. 

 

That same night, Wade got to work. He left Peter sleeping in their shared bed, just a note on his pillow to inform the younger man should he wake up. With dark jeans, a black leather jacket and his Deadpool mask and gloves Wade went for one last kiss to his sleeping lover's naked back, right on that spot between the shoulder blades Wade knew he liked best. Peter only sighed in his sleep and snuggled deeper into the pillow while Wade left the apartment through the window – he didn't want to be seen sneaking out looking like a thief. 

Wade decided on walking through the less crowded streets, while researching some important information on his phone and saving it all for later. He may or may not have exaggerated about those two hours preparation time, but then again that had gotten him some kisses. When he remembered the past hours with Peter in their bed, a big grin stretched over Wade's lips, probably even visible through the mask. 

His first walk of the night led him to the police station Peter'd pointed out. In the back, there was a massive storage unit for evidence material. Knowing how slow they worked, it'd probably be another month until anybody even wanted to take a look at the data. Of course there were always policemen at the station at any time of the day, but surprisingly enough the back entrance wasn't all that secure. Wade just had to jump inside the backyard and sneak around some parked police cars to the door.  
He pondered for a moment how to open it, but in the end decided on the fastest way. There were no visible alarms or traps, but two cameras pointing at the door.  
“Well, here we go,” Wade mumbled and jumped up, dashing to the door in a mad sprint. He slammed into the metal, grunting at the weight of the door, but it gave way. With a loud thud, Wade landed inside the storage room, rolled and stood up immediately to scan the room.  
There were voices in the front already, heavy steps coming towards him.  
Wade quickly found the shelf with the evidence boxes dated the same as his last job. Only one was big enough to contain a computer, so Wade ripped it our, tearing the box away.  
“What the-”  
Wade's fist collided with the officer's head right away and he turned to run, turning into alleyways and jumping over fences, onto ladders and fire exits and eventually ended up a few blocks from the police station. 

He was out of breath and rolled his mask up to his nose to breathe. He pulled headphones from the inside of his jacket and listened to the police radio for a while. Of course there was commotion, yelling and accusations how in the hell someone could steal something from the police.  
Wade grinned, having a hard time not to join the conversation and taunt them. But that wasn’t the old DP show anymore, he was on an important mission. So he didn’t waste much time catching his breath, but continued to one of his old stash places.  
He got a backpack from a ventilation shoot, stuffing the computer in and then leaving through the main entrance of the run-down motel he’d hid the bag in. Nobody even looked twice at the guy in the dark hoodie stomping out onto the street. Perfect.

His next way led Wade to the familiar aisles of storage units – he made a mental note that before they got a house, he'd have to get rid of those and all the stuff in them. Which was a lot, since he owned four units in a row.  
Unlocking the third one, Wade pushed the front upwards, revealing stacks of boxes lining the walls around an angled desk. It was quite an old piece, and not pretty anymore, much like the old computer and printer underneath the tabletop, but it would be enough, had been for the few times Wade had faked things in the past. He turned on the light inside, a simple bulb dangling from the ceiling flickering to life, and then closed the front of the unit again.

The computer moved from inside Wade's backpack to the desk, where Wade could choose a box that'd fit.  
“And we have a winner,” he mumbled, before starting his preparations.  
Wade carefully wrapped the computer in bubble wrap, padding the box with a scan-safe foil that would make any x-rays show that there was nothing more than a metal box inside – could easily be interpreted as some kind of building material for the labs. He printed out a fake shipping sticker and put it on, then picking some stamps from his small collection of faking equipment, putting them on rather randomly and one with a bit too much force, making it seem like a stressed post office worker had been at it.  
When he was done with his work, he rubbed a rough brush all over the outside of the package, making it look like it had travelled a bit and like there surely wasn't anything super important inside. 

It was still dark when Wade emerged from his storage, the box under his arm, seeming like just some guy who’d gotten something out of his storage. Really, his stealth skills weren’t the least bit rusted.  
Peter's texted him the license plate of the delivery truck that went to the Tower in the morning, so Wade perched on top of a fire exit next to the delivery entrance. He watched the guy in his brown uniform get out and unlock the back. Piles of packages and two big crates with letters in all sizes. As Wade had guessed, the guy stacked the crates and carried them inside first, leaving the back doors of the truck open. It wasn't all that big of a security risk, because the area was monitored by cameras and the back door of the building was still open, with the truck in clear sight.  
All things that Wade planned to change. 

He jumped down silently while activating a jam signal that disabled the camera for just half a minute. The same second he landed behind the back door, he kicked it shut, hoping it would be interpreted as a gush of wind. Wade heard the delivery guy curse, but didn't pay too much attention.  
Instead, he pushed some of the other packages around quickly, stuffing the computer in between. The packages were already scanned at the post office, so it wouldn't be obvious that there was one more than at the beginning. 

Wade climbed back up to the roof just in time for the cameras to activate again, where they would record the delivery man coming out of the building for the second hall. The closing door and the man sneaking a box inside the truck would never be seen. He sat there for a moment and watched as the delivery guy took out a cart from the back of the truck, loading it with boxes, the computer among them, and took them inside. When Wade was sure that he wouldn’t be busted, he got up and headed home as fast as he could, only stopping to get some breakfast for his family. 

Peter and Bea were already up when Wade came back home, a bag dangling from his wrist.  
“Papa!” Bea yelled, running around with her hair still a mess, but her clothes for the day already on. She signed for eating when she wasn’t even close to him. Wade laughed, hugging and kissing her, just a little sad that he couldn’t wake her that day.  
“I’ve got something super yummy for you. Baby’s first breakfast burrito!” he said and saw Peter grin.  
“She’s going to love it. Also, what do you think about her outfit?” the younger man asked, picking Bea up and sitting her down in her high chair.  
“I like it, it’s super cute. Though I think ... well, a tutu would look even cuter,” Wade mentioned, because Bea was wearing a light pink shirt with ruffles and jeans.  
“But not at daycare today. As far as I know today is music and dance day,” Peter reminded, hoping their little one would have lots of fun with the other kids.  
“Oh, so pants it is. – But tomorrow she’s gonna stay home, right?”  
“You said you wanted to meet with Matt tomorrow, go over the paperwork for renting out the apartments. And you wanted to start on the floors.”  
“Aw, damn.”  
“Language,” Peter replied quietly, making no big deal of it so Bea wouldn’t notice.  
“Sorry. But I miss her.”  
“She’ll stay with you on Friday, and maybe until Wednesday? Thursday is sports day and the daycare gets to use the gym floor at the Tower, I thought she’d like running around with the kids.”  
“Sure, sure,” Wade mumbled, already planning how to use his alone time to the max so he'd be able to spend the rest to only focus on Bea. “God, I miss her. Hey, when the apartments are ready, she's gonna stay home some more, okay? Please?”  
Peter smirked, nodding. “Yeah. I can look into the daycare's schedule, so she can come for the special days and stay with you for the remaining time.”  
“Sounds perfect,” Wade sighed, having already cut up a burrito into small pieces on Bea's plate. She was making impatient little noises, even slapped her hands onto her little table when it took Wade too long.  
“Hey, you chill out over there, missy,” Wade mumbled, distributing the food evenly on her plate so she’d have easy access. Bea whined and kicked her legs, her lower lip quivering dangerously. Peter was about to step in, when Wade actually said something.  
“My love, you gotta be patient. I know being hungry is super annoying, but you’ll get your food. See? All good,” Wade said and put the plate down before Bea. She eyed her breakfast and grabbed her plastic fork without looking up to Wade.  
“What do you say?” he demanded, which was a bit surprising for Peter. Usually Wade was the one who always caved in and let Bea do what she pleased without much disciplining. But it seemed like her latest little tantrums had been enough to get Wade to reconsider. Well, might be, since even the small crying fits lead to things flying around.  
“Ta’ you,” Bea said quietly and began eating.  
“That’s my girl.”  
“So … that was new,” Peter commented with a smirk and Wade sighed. He sat down on the opposite side of the table and Peter brought their plates over. It was remarkable how well Bea suddenly behaved just because Wade had been the one disciplining her.  
“Well, I ... I kinda don’t like it ... like, _really_ don’t ... but she’s gonna be a super brat if I don’t,” Wade sighed, looking a bit miserable all of a sudden. Peter giggled and leaned over for a quick kiss.  
“Parenting is hard.”  
“It is. Why can't she just stay cute 'n little forever?” Wade whined while picking up his burrito.  
“Because we don't want to change poopy diapers for the rest of our lifes?” Peter joked, but Wade just shrugged.  
“Yummy,” Bea suddenly said, taking another bite of her burrito. Wade looked up, surprised at yet another new word. Then he grinned, looking quite proud.  
“I'm glad you like it. - Maybe it's not all bad that she's growing up,” he said to Peter, who grinned at his two sweethearts.

Bea left with Peter again that day and she was quickly off to play with the other kids as soon as they were at the daycare floor. 

While he received updates every now and again about Wade's day and the preparations for renting out the new apartments, Peter's and his team prepared the lab for a new day of trying to get behind HYRDA's schemes.  
They had just started out with their usual tasks when the daily mail cart hovered through the hallways, pushed by someone from administration.  
He knocked briefly and waited for Peter to open the door, handing over a huge box and some letters on top. Peter signed for the mail with his fingerprint and then closed the lab door again. 

Peter smiled when he looked at the package and brought it over to the table in the middle of the lab. He opened it carefully and took out the computer that was inside, reminding himself to really thank Wade in the evening.  
“What’s that?” Preston asked right away and of course he would.  
”It’s ... the computer where yesterday’s account info was stored on. No further questions,” Peter added quietly, because it was really nobody’s business how they got to have this, it was just important right now that they could go through it.  
“Non asked. Can I start right away?”  
“We will, join me.”

They stayed at the main working station, where they hooked the computer up to another one that wasn't in the system, for security measures. While Preston hacked his way through passwords and into the user history, Peter unscrewed the side panel to take a look inside.  
“We've got four hard drives,” he commented and Preston shot him a quick look.  
“I got only three in here. Let me see,” the hacker mumbled, his fingers ghosting over the keyboard and his eyes flicking from left to right as he scanned line after line of source code to find the hidden drive.  
“And they're all hooked up?”  
“All of them.”  
“Password protected, of course,” he mumbled with a deep frown, typing fast once again. Peter glanced at the screen and while he wasn't bad at coding himself, he had to admit that he'd never work this fast. A task like this would probably take him a full day, while it looked like a thing of maybe an hour or two for Preston.  
While he worked, Peter took a holo screen for himself and started scanning the accessible data for viruses or any kind of malware. Everything that was cleared got transferred to their main servers and Peter had Dee scan through it in advance, filtering out irrelevant things like private photographs, private appointments with doctors or family members, and some bank transactions like for coffee or dinner.

The girls and Phillip worked quietly alongside them for about an hour, when Preston's head snapped up.  
“Peter, I got something,” he said and raised his hand in front of his screen. He opened and closed his fingers, then making a throwing motion to their biggest screen, meaning that he only wanted to capture what was shown on his screen, and not transfer any data because what he worked with was not yet scanned.  
They all carefully paused their work, because Peter had made it clear from the beginning that what was on the main screen was to be reviewed by all of them. This way, Peter could be sure the finds were seen from different angles, different backgrounds.  
“That was on the hidden hard drive. Actually, that thing is filled to the brim, but every folder is protected by a different password, so it's gonna take another while,” Prestone explained while he got up and joined the team in front of the screen.  
They all read the mail that showed up, indicating that the politician has been blackmailed because of some kind of “party” at his house.  
“He’s bought drugs for these parties.”  
“That’s not all that unusual for a politician. Sadly,” Phillip mentioned, looking over to his colleague expectantly.  
“Yeah, it’s not ... so I dug deeper,” Preston replied, looking uneasy all of the sudden and making Peter fear the worst.  
“I think we won’t like what you found.”  
“Not at all. It’s some photos and videos, watch at your own risk.”

Several windows opened and Peter turned around after just a few short glances. What Preston had found could already be classified as pornographic material. The worst part was that it wasn’t involving adults, but obviously children.  
Julia made a gagging sound and quickly turned.  
“I ... I’ll get back to work,” she said and headed back over to her desk. Peter just nodded, forcing himself to get back on the topic although he felt sick to the stomach himself. 

“So we can be safe to assume that HYDRA ... sold? The children?” he asked, wiping his hand over one of the smaller screens to assemble their virtual board of clues, now including pixelated stills of the videos. Thankfully Dee had assumed correctly that having the real images on display all the time would disturb her human co-workers.  
“More like rented ... the payments from T.I.L. are different each time, so it might be by hours,” Phillip pointed out, circling a scan image of the papers Wade got them.  
Peter sighed and had to lean his face into his hands for a moment.  
“They can’t be doing that with the mutant children. They’re too valuable,” he heard himself say, feeling so bad by even speaking like this about children like his daughter.  
“Well, they can’t have a hundred percent success rate. We know from the interview protocols with the women that there were some babies born without any kind of mutation, it just didn’t work.”  
“But they couldn’t just let them out. That’d draw attention,” Emily concluded and Peter was surprised she was still with them, but she seemed to be used to those kinds of cases, just like her brother was, who now added,  
“So they made the most out of it,” Preston said, sighing and adding he'd try and get as much info out of the hidden hard drive as possible.  
“They needed a way to finance their research. And what better paid industries than human trafficking and drugs,” Phillip said, still staring at the screen with all their compiled data. “Tie both together and you can blackmail almost anybody into laundering money for you.”

“And maybe into getting you a nice big military facility to work in,” Peter added quietly, not even wanting to think about how long these things had to be going on.  
A brief silence followed and Phillip turned around, obviously trying to stomach that thought. 

“Peter ... are you suggesting-“  
”I’m not suggesting. It’s fact. Some very high ranked military people bought either drugs or children or both from HYDRA and in return gave them the base.”

 

They had all worked double time from then on, compiling data, working through the huge amounts they now had, all to try and finally get their hands on the people who were still doing business with Hydra.  
After hours and hours of staring at the screens, Peter felt exhausted, and was so glad that he could pick Bea up. Wade was running a little late, because the floor renovations in one of the apartments had taken longer than expected, so Peter would just take Bea out of daycare and get some lunch with her. 

“Daddy!”  
Peter smiled when Bea came running to him, catching her right when she jumped into his arms. She immediately started talking, which Peter could guess after a moment was her telling him they'd played some kind of princess game.  
“That sounds so fun. Have you said bye bye to the teachers?”  
“No.”  
“Then let's go and say bye bye.”  
Peter talked for a moment with Bea's nanny, glad that there was nothing negative to say about his little girl. Apparently she had understood that she had to share and be nice, and so far there hadn't been any meltdowns. Seemed like she only did that when Peter and Wade were involved, which was pretty logical … tantrum around those people who are most likely to react. Although, actually Bea rarely even threw tantrums. But if she did, they were quite the disaster.  
“Tomorrow's craft day, It'd be great if you have an old t-shirt that she could wear instead of an apron. You know how it is, paint magically gets everywhere,” she giggled and Peter laughed, because it was true. He only ever painted with Bea when she was due for bathtime right after.  
“I think we got something, I'll remember to bring it tomorrow,” Peter promised, before they said their goodbye to the teacher and left through the heavy security door.  
Peter was almost at the elevator when one of the Tower's many interns came running for him. By now he was sure that those guys didn't train for an office job, but for a marathon.  
”Dr. Parker! Dr. Parker, wait!” he called, huffing and with his face slowly turning red.  
“What is it?” Peter asked, suddenly concerned and hoping his lab wasn’t in lockdown because of some kind of chemical leak.  
“Hi,” Bea said quietly to the intern, who smiled shakily.  
“Hi. - You – you have ... permission to ... visit the specimen in ... sub ... sublevel 13, Sir,” he panted and Peter’s eyes widened. “Specimen” referred to the boy that was held in one of the high-security labs underground. Those that were used when handling extremely toxic chemicals or highly explosive materials.  
“Uh ... yeah, I’ll get right to it,” Peter said, while watching the intern hurry away, probably to submit the next urgent message. He stared down at Bea, who smiled happily.  
“So … it's gonna have to be bring your kid to work day,” Peter guessed, feeling a bit bad for taking Bea with him when he had no idea what was awaiting him at the sub levels. Then again, he'd picked her up, so dropping her off once more could be confusing for her and that was really an unnecessary risk to take.  
“Wo'k.”  
“Yeah, work. Daddy's got some more work to do. And Bea can watch.”  
“Watch,” she repeated, her small fingers fiddling with Peter's collar. He kissed her head, making her smirk once they were in the elevator. Peter showed Bea which button to push and she did, sending them down. 

“Home?“ Bea asked, looking around when they got off the elevator on the sublevels, the hallways only illuminated by artificial lights. A big sign told them they were on floor 13, then pointing them into various directions. One of the brackets had a piece of paper stuck over the original label, saying “Lockdown – authorized personnel only!“ in bold lettering.  
”We're gonna go home later, Daddy needs to do some work first,“ Peter explained again, seeing Bea nod. She seemed unwell in the crammed hallways, though, so Peter distracted her with her doll while they walked. 

“You wanna push the button?” he asked when they were at a security door, needing to ring for a guard. Bea reached out and pushed the big red call button, gasping excitedly when it produced a loud ring.  
“Again?” Peter asked with a grin, and Bea pushed the button right away.  
“Coming!” someone yelled from behind the door and Bea leaned back immediately, her eyes big and round. A buzzer sounded and Peter pushed open the door, stepping into a small meeting room next to an even smaller surveillance room, more of a chamber than anything else. 

The guard on duty had just plopped himself down into a padded office chair again and only raised an eyebrow when Peter entered with Bea on his hip.  
“The approval was a bit short notice,” he explained with a shrug and the guard nodded.  
“You can’t go inside anyways, but you can have a look at him through the window, and here’s the connection to the intercom,” the guard pointed to a panel next to the window. “Just push the button and talk, you can hear him right away should he answer.”  
“Okay ...,” Peter said, now really not feeling bad anymore for bringing Bea. Peter wouldn’t be away from her for one second and he would probably not talk to the boy because he didn’t want to aggravate him.  
“Let’s look at what we got,” Peter mumbled, sitting Bea down on the only chair at the desk. She put her doll down and stood up, one hand around Peter’s wrist as he held the chair in place.  
“Boy.”  
“Yes, that's a boy,” Peter answered while reading.  
Peter flipped through the guard’s and doctor’s notes, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. They boy ate most of what they put in front of him, but slept only for a few hours every now and then. He didn’t play or talk, or even react to being spoken to. He just sat there in front of the bed on the floor, looking almost ready to jump up and attack. 

“Daddy,” Bea said quietly, as if she feared to disturb the boy. Peter looked down and found her bright blue eyes on him intently.  
“Yes?”  
She lifted both hands to chest-level, putting her index fingers together a few times.  
“Hurt?” Peter asked, raising his brows. “Oh, have you got an ouchie?”  
”No,” Bea said, shaking her blond locks, but signing “hurt” again, before pointing at the boy.  
It took Peter a moment to understand that somehow, Bea had gotten an idea what was going on with the boy.  
“He’s hurt?”  
“Yeah.”  
She looked through the window seriously, before nodding again as if to herself. Peter shut the records and squatted down next to the chair, making Bea sit as well so they could look at each other.  
“Bea, do you know where the boy is hurt?”  
”Owie,” she said and then pointed to her head.  
“His head hurts?”  
Bea nodded.  
“Where? Do you know? Show me.”  
Bea thought about that for a moment, looked at the boy again, and then shrugged. She signed that she didn’t know, and then pointed to her head again.  
“Okay, that was so helpful, baby, thank you for telling me,” Peter praised and hugged her. Bea clung to him and let herself be lifted from the chair. 

“Daddy.”  
“Yes?”  
Bea looked at him, her beautiful blue eyes still so serious, and signed. First “bad”, then “man”, then she pointed to her head again.  
“A ... bad man ... hurt the boy’s head?” Peter asked, his veins slowly filling with dread as he pieced everything together.  
“Yeah.”  
“Oh, baby,” Peter whispered and hugged Bea close, once again so unbearably happy and thankful that he could get her out of that place long before she had to endure any of that torture. “We’ll help him, don’t worry,” he promised, feeling adrenaline surge through him because this was just a bit too much for him – Bea seeming to know or sense something and the dread of this boy having something inside his head. There was no way she could make something like this up, and Peter thought about the conversation that he's had with Wade, that she's somehow directly effecting his health. 

Right away, Peter called the doctor in charge of the boy. Peter told him about a “suspicion” he’s had and that he’d request them to do an MRI of the boy’s head. He eventually agreed, after Peter had more or less insisted, suggesting to sedate the boy.  
“Tell me immediately should you find anything unusual. - Yeah, thanks,” Peter said, hanging up and looking down at Bea, who was standing next to him.  
“All done?” she asked curiously, lifting her arms for Peter to pick her up. He smiled and did, hugging her close.  
“Yes, all done. We can go now.”  
“Home, to Papa!”  
Peter smiled, thinking of Wade's smile, how he always kissed and hugged both of them, so happy to see them both although they were only seperated for a few hours.  
“Yeah, he'll miss us already. - Hey, let’s get some ice cream after lunch, you helped me a lot today,” Peter said, kissing Bea on the cheek and showing her which elevator button to push. She grinned and nodded eagerly, but insisted, half talking and half signing, that they had to get some ice cream for Wade as well.  
Peter let Bea call Wade and they told him about their plans. They agreed on a restaurant nearby where they could meet up and have lunch together, then Wade would take Bea home and Peter would get back to work.  
_”Bea, Papa wants skittles on the ice cream, you're gonna help me get them, right?._ Wade said through the speaker and Bea nodded, looking at Wade’s picture on the screen.  
“'kay.”  
_”Cool, cool. But, it has to be a lot. Like, a million skittles.”_  
“'kitt'l”  
_”You got it, honey. Can I talk to Daddy?”_  
“I can hear you. And you bet she’s going to order all the skittles,” Peter replied, taking the phone from Bea.  
_“That’s my girl. I'm almost downtown, see you two sweethearts soon.”_  
“Alright, drive save, see you soon. - Say: see you soon, Papa,” Peter said quietly to Bea, holding the phone out.  
“S'you, Papa!” she shouted and made both men laugh.


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you cute people, you ;) Sorry for being MIA last week, things have been a bit rough, but to make up for it, today's chap is extra long!
> 
> Enjoy <3

Peter decided to keep the incident in the sublevels to himself, just because he couldn't be sure if Bea'd really found something or if she was just telling a story. Although not even Peter believed himself with the latter, he wanted to wait until they had proof before he talked to Wade.   
They had their ice cream together and Bea was super happy and also a bit high from the sugar. Wade mentioned he'd maybe let her run around a bit on the playground before driving home, just so she could burn off some of that energy.   
“Yeah, she's never gonna take her nap like that,” Peter smirked, seeing how she jumped up and down while holding Wade's hand. They were just on the way back to the Tower where Wade'd parked the car. “Oh, and could you look for an old shirt that Bea can take to daycare tomorrow? It's art day.”  
“Sure, yeah, lemme just …,” Wade mumbled and typed a quick note on his phone to remember. He was actually very good at remembering things now, but he still liked to have his phone up to date just in case.   
Peter went to the parking lot and strapped Bea into her seat while Wade stashed her diaper bag behind the passenger seat and gave her some toys to play with during the ride.   
“See you guys later. I’ll miss you,” Peter said and kissed Bea, who showed him a big smile in return. Peter carefully closed the door and turned to step into Wade’s waiting arms.   
“Don’t let all the bad stuff stress you,” Wade whispered and his lips brushed Peter’s temple. The younger man nodded in silence, both of them knowing they were of course monitored by security cameras.   
“I won’t. See you two in the evening,” Peter whispered back after a while, feeling bad everytime he left for work again. He missed being with Bea all day, just spending quality time on her and seeing her grow and learn and explore the world. Suddenly Peter was hit by such bad longing that he almost jumped into the car.   
Wade’s hands rubbed over his back gently and Peter sighed, leaning his head against Wade’s shoulder.   
“Send me a pic or two of you guys?” Peter asked, ignoring how pathetic he felt and sounded. Wade kissed his temple again, humming in agreement.   
“Sure will. See you tonight.”

A moment later Peter watched the car pull out of the parking lot and waved for Bea, seeing her cute smile one more time. Peter was apprehensive to get back into the lab, because ... well, he had to admit to himself that he had a hard time working on finding distributors or child pornography or even people who _rented_ children for ...   
Groaning, Peter rubbed both hands over his face, wishing nothing more than to just web himself home and hug Bea, kiss her and tell her that he’d always protect her. 

He met Emily and Julia on the hallway to the lab, the two had just finished their lunch at the cafeteria. Preston and Phillip would be next to take a break, this way there was always someone in the lab operating the computers and seeing that sorting and fixing the data didn’t come to a halt. Because, quite frankly, with the sheer amount of data flowing into their system they could not afford that.   
They exchanged a few words and Peter took over Preston’s spot at the main working station. He wouldn’t be as fast as the hacker, but with the A.I. Dee to help him, Peter was sure to get some work done. 

The coding was slow, but went better once Dee offered to fill the gaps, only leaving Peter to tend to the complicates backdoors or passwords.   
“Dee, please go through everything that’s on the other three hard drives. Sort pictures, documents, correspondence and log data in separate folders and by date.”  
 _”As you wish,”_ came the A.I.’s smooth voice over the speakers. Peter watched for a moment as several windows opened on a different screen, and packages of data were sorted left right and centre.   
Peter just sighed in relief when he managed to open one more folder and send it to the virus check, when his phone chimed. While he loaded the next folder on the hidden drive into his programme, Peter checked his phone, smirking when he looked at the picture Wade sent him.   
Of course the Merc wouldn't let Bea go to daycare with just the old t-shirt thrown over, instead he altered it. Wade'd tightened the collar so it wouldn’t just slip over one of Bea’s shoulders, ultimately probably leading to paint on her good clothes, and had kept the cut off bottom part to tie it around as a belt so it'd fit nicely and not look like a bag. The sleeves were long enough that they'd cover Bea's own sleeves if they were rolled up, and when she sat at the table to paint her pants would be just fine.   
_”I'll make her a better one for next time, just ordered the cutest fabric online,”_ he wrote under the picture, and Peter grinned, because of course Wade would do that. He could've just ordered a toddler's painting apron online, but that was probably not stylish enough. No, Bea would have a beautiful handmade apron, most likely with ruffles.   
Peter quickly replied, _”I'm sure it'll be amazing. Miss you guys.”_

A bit later, when Peter was already elbow deep into his data, when his phone chimed again. It took him a moment to save the recent progress and find his phone in the chaos of his desk. When he could finally look at the picture, Peter smiled wide.   
It showed Bea in her crib, sleeping with both arms stretched over her head and her feet kicking off the blanket. Her bear was in the bed with her, too, but he was face-down a bit further away from her.   
_”I wish I could take naps like that. #babylife #jealous,”_ Wade’s caption read and Peter actually laughed out loud, startling Emily and Julia on her working stations.   
“Sorry. I’m sorry. Uh, if it’s any excuse, here,” Peter said, feeling himself blush a bit. He showed the picture of Bea and the women smiled, Julia reminding him that they still needed to get their kids together for a playdate.   
They agreed on a Saturday in two weeks, at the playground if the weather was nice and at a kid’s museum if it was raining. 

 

Back at home, Wade spent Bea’s naptime with some easy quick work on the other apartments. Most of them were empty by now, and while he checked the baby monitor every few minutes, Wade fixed some new faucets in a bathroom, took off shower curtains in another place and removed a broken oven from the kitchen at yet another.

After her nap, Bea woke up in a grumpy mood. She started crying when Wade put her on the changing table and didn't stop even though he sang her songs and told her about the exciting rest of the day ahead.   
“Aw, my poor baby, what's going on?” Wade asked, feeling a tug in his heart when he saw a big tear run down Bea's face. It wasn’t the kind of shrill or loud cry she usually did when something was wrong, she just seemed whiny and a bit off. Wade tried to get her to smile again, but didn't quite succeed.   
She wasn't interested in food or milk, so Wade made her some tea – with a bit of sugar because he really wanted her to cheer up. Peter never put sugar in her tea, and Wade usually followed the good example, but he was just so wrapped around Bea's little fingers that he'd try anything.  
At least it got her to drink, even though she didn't want to play or anything else.   
“How about some music?” Wade suggested when he sat on the floor with Bea, her sipping her tea and looking quite miserable. He briefly wondered if she was a bit unwell because she was growing, because he had read somewhere that that happened. “Yeah, I'll show you some very good music. Something different, but you're gonna like it!”  
Bea watched Wade as he went over to the TV, where a black cube sat next to some boxes. He opened a drawer underneath and pulled out an old CD.  
“Song?” Bea asked quietly, a distinct lisp with the s. Wade smirked, glad that he'd at least gotten her to pay attention to something else.   
“Yeah, we're gonna listen to some songs,” Wade answered and waited for some familiar 80s tunes to fill the air. Bea watched him curiously, leaning her head to the side, as the CD with the very best 80s romance songs played. About the only thing Wade could think about that was safe from bad words.   
“You like it?” Wade said, sitting back down on the floor. Bea listened a moment longer, then pushed herself up and went over to take Wade's hands in hers.   
“Oh, you wanna dance? All right, let's dance!” Wade said, happy to have finally distracted her a bit. He lifted Bea up into his arms, holding one of her hands.   
“There you go, how cool is that? Our first dance,” Wade said and felt himself smile so much his cheeks hurt. Bea grinned, shaking their hands happily.   
Wade began turning them in slow circles, then dipping Bea every now and then because that made her laugh. Eventually he sung along quietly to the familiar tunes, knew the lines about the greatest love by heart.  
Wade thought that true for both Bea and Peter. 

Bea leaned her head against Wade's shoulder and he was suddenly overwhelmed by love, hugging her close and kissing her head.   
“I love you, Bea,” he sighed and she hugged him back.   
“Lu' you.”  
Wade giggled, over the moon with happiness.   
“How about we only cuddle all day today?” Wade asked, swaying them from side to side gently.   
“Yeah,” Bea agreed, nodding against Wade's shoulder. He was still a bit concerned that she was just slumped against him, but she didn't seem to have even the slightest cold symptoms.  
After the song Wade took a few of Bea's favourite books from the stack in the living room and snuggled up on the sofa with her.   
“Hey, what's that?” he asked halfway through the first book, noticing Bea's red cheeks. She whined without saying something, wanting to push Wade's hand away when he touched her cheeks.   
“Aw, does it hurt? Ouchie?”  
Bea nodded and seemed unhappy again.   
“My sweetie, getting some more teeth, are we? Let's see if we can have a yummy popsicle to fix that,” Wade proposed, finding some frozen yoghurt popsicles he'd made a while ago. They sat at the table and listened to some more music while enjoying the cold treat, and Bea did seem to be a bit happier afterwards. 

 

When Peter came home in the late afternoon, he found Wade and Bea snuggled up on the couch together, looking at something on the tablet computer. Bea whined loudly when she saw him, stretching out her arms and pouting until Peter picked her up.   
“What's going on, cutie? Why such a grumpy mood?”  
“I think she's getting more teeth. Maybe her molars, her cheeks were all red after her nap.”  
“Yeah, that'd be about the right time now,” Peter said, hugging Bea close and gently rocking her like he always did when she felt bad. Bea sniffled and leaned into Peter's hold, obviously very okay with being held like that. “Poor baby, it's going to be better soon,” Peter mumbled and kissed Bea's head, surprised himself with a tear running down his cheek.   
“Petey, what’s up?” Wade asked right away, and Peter just shook his head quickly. He hoped the older man would understand the gaze he shot him.   
“Nothing, really, I'm fine … just … work things. We'll talk later.”  
Wade looked at him for a long moment, then nodded.   
“Alright. Later then. - You're home early,” Wade commented, changing his tone to happy again, so that Bea wouldn't be upset. He patted the sofa and Peter sat down, still holding Bea. Wade gently ran his hand over Bea's back, making Peter smile.   
“You want some tea?”  
“Yeah, but let's stay a moment. I … I want to enjoy this,” Peter added quietly, leaning his head against the cushions. Wade hummed in agreement, carefully sliding his arm around Peter's shoulders. They stayed like this for a while, Wade kissing Peter's temple occasionally, still running his hand over Bea's back. 

“Are you playing the Best Of 80s CD?” Peter asked eventually, a smirk on his lips. Wade laughed and agreed. He leaned over to kiss Bea's head, before getting up to prepare Peter's tea.  
“Yeah, I wanted to distract Bea with some different music. And I am proud to announce that she likes it!”  
“Of course she does,” Peter said sweetly and hugged Bea. “Have you tried giving her a popsicle?”  
“Yeah, a while ago. It was okay but it didn't last long.”  
“Hm,” Peter made, thinking that Bea was probably too old to enjoy just biting down on those teething helpers they still had in the freezer.  
The pain was probably moderate, but it bothered her, which was understandable. Painkillers weren't an alternative just yet, since it was normal growing pains she would have to go through. So distracting and relaxing it was, Peter thought. Not all that much of an easy task with a little bundle of energy like her. 

“You really don't wanna tell me now? Honey, I see you're upset,” Wade tried again when he brought a cup of steaming tea over to the coffee table. Peter had gotten Bea to not cling to him by now. She looked at Wade and her lip quivered again, but Peter quickly tried to distract her.   
“How about we play with some play-dough? Wanna make some play-dough cookies?” he asked, motioning for Wade to follow them when Bea nodded slowly.   
They all went over to the play area, where Peter put out some shapes onto Bea's table.   
“So then, don't wanna talk about it?” Wade pressed, smiling for Bea when he helped her load up the moulds.   
“I do. I really do. I just …,” Peter started and breathed out a sigh, running both hands over his face quickly. Bea opened one of her moulds and revealed a purple flower, which Peter helped her put onto the table. “Look, how pretty.”  
“Yeah. One more,” she said, something she only recently learned at the daycare. She chose another color, then a different mould. 

Wade didn't urge Peter, but the younger man still wanted to talk. Actually needed to get it out, felt like it was burning acid through his veins. But he needed to be careful with his phrasing, when Bea was still around.   
“We found something … on the computer you brought us,” Peter began, working hard to keep his tone chatty, so that Bea wouldn't pay too much attention to it.   
“Okay. And it wasn't … something … nice,” Wade concluded, one eyebrow raised.   
“No, it wasn't. There was … a hidden hard drive. It was … there was ...”  
“Things on it.”  
Peter just nodded, trying hard still to keep a calm face.   
“It was … pictures and videos … of that politician … doing things … you know, those things, that adults sometimes do … but to children.”  
When Wade followed Peter's careful words, his eyes widened and he opened his mouth as if to curse. He put a hand over it quickly, stood up and paced the room. Peter could hear him mutter curses under his breath, but he was sure Bea couldn't.   
It took Wade a good minute of stomping through the apartment until he could even get back to the living room, and by then Bea was looking up to him.   
“Papa?”  
“Let's make another flower,” Peter tried to distract, not sure if Wade was ready for baby talk yet.   
“No, Papa,” Bea insisted, wanting Wade to play with them again. The Merc looked over, met Bea's gaze, and suddenly his shoulders lowered with a sigh, then he slowly walked over.   
“And what are you doing now? With this … information?” he asked quietly when he walked past Peter, sitting down next to Bea and accepting a play-dough mould with a smile.   
“We'll find out who's involved. Find them.”  
“Let me know if you plan any raids. I'd love to get … involved.”  
“Okay,” Peter just agreed, feeling a rush of satisfaction when he thought about beating up some of those disgusting creatures. He wasn’t one for violence, but to people like this even Spiderman would land some punches.   
“It ... makes me ... sad ... having seen this. And angry. And tired,” Peter added quietly, seeinf Wade nod. Wade smiled, taking a mould from Bea’s assortment and holding it out to Peter.   
“Then let’s play a bit. – Forget for now, if you can?” Wade added in almost a whisper, and Peter was so glad to be home, with his family. 

In the evening, Peter took a bath with Bea, even lighting a scented candle that he hoped would help relax her. They played with her rubber duckies and a small plastic boat, while Wade sat next to the tub and tried to wash Bea.   
“Daddy, daddy,” she said, squirming around when Wade rubbed shampoo on her head.   
“Oh, you want me to wash Daddy, too?” Wade asked, a big grin on his face that made Peter roll his eyes.   
“Yeah, 'sh Daddy!”   
Peter giggled, but shook his head at Wade, who now rinsed Bea's hair.   
“Aw, but Daddy doesn't want me to!” Wade complained, making Peter groan inwardly, because that just wasn't fair.   
“No, Daddy!” Bea shouted and signed 'please' to Peter once she could see again. Peter sighed, but shot Wade a warning glance.   
“Okay, sure, Papa can wash me,” he agreed and Bea seemed happy, handing Peter a rubber ducky to play with.   
“'sh ducky,” Bea said happily and took a flower-shaped sponge from her basket of toys next to the tub, beginning to scrub her duck.   
“Yeah, everybody's getting nice and clean today,” Wade agreed, taking the shower gel and pouring some on his hands.   
“Except you.”  
“Well, first I don't fit in that tub with you guys, and second, I'm here to get dirty.”  
Peter threw a wet rubber duck at Wade, making Bea laugh and splash her hands in the water.   
“Dude, foul play!”  
Peter grinned, but leaned back obediently when Wade reached out with soapy hands and a loofa. He didn't want Bea to get too excited and just splash around all the time, so he let himself be washed by Wade.  
“We should do this more often,” Wade commented, gesturing for Peter to stretch out an arm, which the hero did.   
“You washing us?”   
“Yeah. I like it,” Wade replied, his voice turning gentle and soft. Bea smiled, maybe having picked up on the loving atmosphere. She held out another duck for Peter and he took it, setting it on the plastic boat to steer it. Peter leaned back again and stretched out his other arm for Wade to wash, happy to make his lover feel good.   
Wade had always been very physical, always kissing and hugging and cuddling, but only when he allowed himself to have it. Because of his past, and largely also because of his looks, he still sometimes felt like he didn't deserve to touch or be touched, to feel good or make others feel good.   
Peter never said anything about it, and probably never would, but he felt like ever since they had Bea, Wade thought less and less of himself as not deserving. Even now he smiled, rubbing slow circles over Peter's back and shoulders.  
“I’d say the two of us should take a bath next time. When Bea’s at aunt May’s?” Peter said, already looking forward to the one or two times a month where their aunt would take the little one so they could have a couple’s day.   
Wade seemed to blush the tiniest bit under his scars, and shrugged.   
“Yeah, maybe.”  
”Definitely. – Right, Bea? Next time Papa’s going in the tub, too.”  
“Yeah!”  
“That’s not fair,” Wade laughed, motioning for Peter to bow his head. The younger man did, smirking when Wade even shampooed his hair and rinsed it.   
“It’s not, but it’s a sure way to get you into the tub with me. You and me and some nice hot water?”  
“That doesn’t sound PG.”  
“It probably won’t be.”  
“Well, well, well, look who’s making the raunchy jokes around the baby;” Wade giggled, reaching out to hold Bea, who’s decided to stand up in the tub and look into her basket of bath toys. 

With Bea wrapped up in a big towel, Wade went over to her room a bit later, making her laugh with something. Peter grinned, leaning back for a moment and enjoying the warm water by himself. That was, until he heard Bea's happy voice.   
“Daddy!”   
“Daddy, hurry up!” Wade urged and Peter laughed, shaking his head and stepping out of the tub. He quickly rubbed himself down with a towel, jumped into some loose fitting sleeping pants and went over to the nursery, where Wade was just drying Bea up with a towel.   
“What's the outfit for tonight?” Peter asked, knowing that Wade was always in for making Bea look cute.   
“I thought of the pink nighty with the ruffles on the bottom? It'd match her sheets really well.”  
Peter smirked, because of course Wade had picked pale pink sheets for Bea.   
“I feel like we need a boy to counter all the pink,” Peter said and stalled right away, surprised about his own words. Wade looked over his shoulder, eyebrows raised but a happy glow in his eyes.   
“Uh …,” Peter just uttered, feeling himself blush.   
“So … you'd … want to?” Wade asked, turning again to tend to Bea, who was wiggling around on the changing table. Her hair was almost dry by now and Wade hurried to get a fresh diaper on her.   
“I … I'm sorry, that was … that kind of slipped out. I … well ...” Peter stammered, not sure where his thoughts had went.   
Did he want another child?  
He knew Wade wanted to.   
Wade probably wanted a whole soccer team. 

“I ... probably? I don’t know I ... uh ...”  
Peter felt like he couldn’t breathe for a moment, because of course he loved Bea, and he loved having her in the family and seeing her grow. He realized he would absolutely _love_ having another child, but ...  
There was that possibility there there was already one, or there were more than one, somewhere in a facility. Maybe one that’d suffered like that boy in the sublevels. Or worse, that’d been rented out.  
“I’m sorry,” Peter mumbled and dashed out of the room, having to put a hand in front of his mouth to keep from sobbing. What if he had already seen his child in one of those pictures?

Uncovering more and more of Hydras schemes every day had Peter on the brink. There was still the memory from the mission to get them Bea. And the constant threat, every day they took to work, more people had to suffer. And those pictures. The videos. Hydra selling out children like goods. 

Peter hadn’t realized he’d sunken to the floor until Wade’s hands were on his shoulders. The hero’s knees were on the floor, his hands on his head, trying to block out all those memories.   
“Hey, are you okay?”  
“I ... Wade, I can’t ... I’m sorry-“  
“Don’t be. Everything’s okay.”  
“No, Wade! You don’t ... I ... Wade, we had to look at those pictures, at the videos! And what if one of those children ...?!” Peter blurted out, his stomach flipping and he feared he might have to throw up.   
Wade knelt down beside him and pulled him into an embrace.  
“I’m sorry. That you had to see this. Petey, I promise we’ll find these people and I will make them suffer the worst pain of their lives,” Wade said, of course excluding Peter from this because he knew the younger man wasn’t one to draw blood. “Bea’s in her room, do you wanna cuddle her while I read you guys a story?”  
Peter felt tears burn in his eyes, blinking them away quickly before he nodded.   
“Yes,” he said and Wade helped him up.   
Peter held Bea to his chest, rocking her gently, like he always did ever since they got her. She seemed very happy with that, leaning against him with her eyes half closed. Wade had brought a wool blanket from the living room and placed it over Peter and Bea, tucking them in nice and warm.   
Peter listened to the story he knew by heart by now, looking at Bea’s little hands that were curled up against his chest.   
She was so precious. So wonderful.   
To her, the world was a new adventure every day, full of new things to see and to learn.   
Peter was overwhelmed by how honored he felt to be a part of that, to have a chance of seeing the world through her eyes. 

Bea looked up when a tear landed on her hand, her own eyes big and so beautiful bright blue when she met Peter’s gaze.   
“No, Daddy,” she said, but quietly, as if to console him. Peter tried to smile, wiping away that tear, but more followed. The events of the day didn’t seem to let him go, and he bowed his head when his shoulders shook with a sob. Wade’s words tapered out in the middle of the sentence and Peter hugged Bea close, sniffling.   
“Daddy, sad,” she said, probably to inform Wade, her small hands on Peter’s head. She kissed Peter’s forehead and he smiled, leaning back again.   
“No, Daddy isn’t sad. Daddy is happy,” Peter explained, his voice raspy.  
“Happy.”  
“Yeah. To be here. With you and Papa.”  
“Sometimes people cry when they’re happy,” Wade explained quietly and put the book aside. Peter nodded, wiping his cheeks again, glad that there were no more tears following. He still felt like something was locked up inside him, growing and ready to just burst through him, but he would be okay while Bea was still up.   
“I’m just so very happy to be with Bea,” Peter said and leaned over to kiss her softly, cuddling her to his chest again. Bea hummed, maybe thinking about this words.   
“Happy,” she eventually said and Peter nodded, sniffling again.   
“You guys wanna hear the rest of the story?” Wade asked, smiling and briefly reaching over to squeeze Peter’s hand.   
“Yeah!” Bea answered and pulled her legs in to curl up into a little ball on Peter’s lab, something she always liked to do when they cuddled. With Wade, she was usually sprawled out all over him, but with Peter she always hid in his embrace.   
Wade got to finish the story and they both sang her a lullaby, Peter still gently rocking her until her eyes closed. They just sat there, Peter and Wade watching Bea sleep in the younger man’s arms, for a few minutes.   
“C’mon, let’s get her into bed,” Wade eventually said, picking up books and toys from the nursery floor quickly while Peter put Bea into her crib. Wade turned on her nightlight and took Peter’s hand when they left the room.  
“You want a glass of wine? Something else?”   
Peter could guess that Wade would pour him some hard liquor if he asked for it.   
”Red wine would be great. Let’s share a glass,” Peter offered, feeling weird about even drinking after such a day, but then again he really liked a glass every now and then.   
“Sure,” Wade said and went over to the kitchen, gesturing to the sofa for Peter. The younger man sat down, thinking he must look miserable if Wade agreed to drink with him. It was a weekday, after all, and Wade never drank on weekdays anymore. Only ever on the weekends, either if Bea was in bed or with aunt May, and only when there was someone else with him.   
“Thanks,” Peter said when Wade held out a rounded glass to him, taking a sip of the ruby liquid. He smiled to himself, a little melancholic, because some years ago it was them on the sofa with some takeout, soda and beer, not with a baby monitor, wine and worries. 

“Really was a rough day, huh?” Wade asked quietly after they've passed the glass back and forth for a bit. Peter just reached out again and nodded. He took a big gulp and sighed when he felt reasonably fuzzy. Not drunk by a long shot, but the alcohol helped to relax.   
“Yeah.”  
“If you wanna talk about it...?”  
Peter shrugged his shoulders, taking another big sip. “What’s there to talk about? We saw some really really bad things today, and I wish I’d never seen them but at the same time I’m glad? Because it will get us further along in the mission. But ... Wade, how will we stop this? This is human trafficking, child pornography, abuse, drugs, all of the worst things possible.”  
Wade leaned closer, sliding an arm around Peter’s shoulders.   
“I’ll find them. Have you told Stark yet?”  
“We’ll tell him and the others tomorrow, when all the data is sorted.”  
Wade just hummed and pulled Peter closer still,   
“We’ll get them. Every single one. And let’s just hope I get my hands on them before the Avengers do, because that’s gonna be a whole lot more fun.”  
Peter smiled wrily, not sure how to feel about the fact that the prospect of Wade beating people up made him so happy. 

They shared the wine – well, Wade got some sips of it while Peter drank the rest – and eventually kissed. It was slow, at first, a peck, then a lingering brush of their lips. Peter laughed against Wade’s lips when Wade pulled him up and onto his lap.   
“Missed your laugh,” Wade commented, surprising Peter before kissing him again.   
“Huh?”   
Wade smirked into the next kiss, barely letting them time to speak.  
“I missed your laugh. Too many tears today.”  
Peter smiled when Wade’s hands framed his face, thumbs tracing the lines underneath his eyes that the tears had taken all day.   
“Sorry.”  
“Don’t be.”  
“I don’t want to ... take all this home. But ...”  
“It follows.”  
“Yeah.”  
Wade nodded, understanding better than anyone else probably, how some things were just haunting by nature. Peter didn’t need to ask what kinds of things the Merc had seen on his missions. 

“Hey,” Wade began after a moment, catching Peter’s gaze again and smiling. There was no use to say that everything was going to be okay, because it might not be, so Wade just leaned in and kissed him again. Peter’s tense shoulders relaxed a little, he lifted his arms to place them onto the backrest of the sofa to lean in closer. 

“I miss you. Both of you,” Peter said between kisses, leaning back down, brows furrowed, almost overwhelmed by the feeling of Wade’s lips on his.   
“Can’t you ... take some time off?” Wade asked, running a hand underneath Peter’s shirt over the taut muscles of his back. Instinctively, Peter’s hips pushed onto Wade’s, but he felt desperate for another reason.  
“I don’t know ... I want to ... so bad ...”  
“Then do.”  
“Please,” the younger man whispered, shaking his head minutely before leaning in for another kiss. “Let’s not talk about work anymore. Please.”  
“Okay,” Wade agreed quietly, pulling Peter in again, a hand possessively at the back of Peter’s neck, the other one still drawing invisible lines on his bare back. 

They hugged and kissed until they needed to break apart for gasping breaths. Wade got up first, leading Peter to the bedroom, their hands entwined. There was no hurry when they undressed each other, then slipped into bed.  
There was no need for words, they just shared a long look after even longer kisses, and Wade smirked. He flipped Peter onto his belly quickly, making the younger man laugh again. Peter grinned when teasing bites wandered from his neck down to the small of his back. 

Wade took his time working Peter’s body open, using more lube than they usually would, but Peter still furrowed his brow with the stretch he felt. He couldn’t quite relax, unable to let go and just give himself over to Wade.   
The Merc was gentle, but didn’t stop, wouldn’t until Peter told him, so Peter just clenched his teeth and tried to force himself to relax, let go at least a bit. He wasn’t at all successful, though, and just took the burning of Wade’s fingers entering him until the older man had massaged his muscles loose enough.   
“You still ... want to?” Wade carefully asked while he took a condom out of the nightstand drawer. Peer smirked wryly, because of course Wade would still ask.   
“Yes,” he just answered, hiding his face in the pillow and waiting for Wade to put the condom on. 

Wade pulled Peter into his arms when he laid down, spooning him. Peter smiled gently because having his lover that close was just what he needed. Still, as good as Peter felt, Wade still had to finger him again for a moment just to be able to line up.   
Peter sighed when Wade pushed into his body, the hero’s wrists tingling with tension.   
Wade’s arm was slung over Peter’s chest, holding him tight. Peter had one hand clenched in the pillow, the other around Wade’s wrist, clinging to him like a lifeline. The fist few shallow thrusts almost hurt and Peter heard himself whine.   
“Sorry, sorry,” Wade whispered behind him, holding him closer, still moving carefully inside Peter’s body. It wasn’t comfortable at all, but Peter found himself not really caring, he was just too happy to have Wade so close to him, as close as possible. 

“Harder,” Peter hissed, closing his eyes and desperately wanting his brain to turn off. Wade grunted jolting Peter and manhandling him a bit, knocking the air out of him for a moment when he pulled Peter’s upper body backwards.   
“Bend your legs,” Wade ordered, making Peter shiver. The younger man complied, shuffling into position, feeling so needy when he held onto Wade’s hand that was still on his chest.   
He was almost curled up now, feeling every inch of Wade inside him. It was intense, so much and so good that Peter finally felt all his thoughts slowly disappear. _Yes, finally_ he thought and relief flooded him.  
Wade took it slow at first, getting both of them accustomed to the position, but when Peter relaxed against him, the Merc's strong hands found their place on Peter's hips and he began thrusting hard and deep, but still not fast.  
Soon Peter couldn't think at all, couldn't even say anything, only needy whines and moans escaping his lips. From his position, he couldn’t do much but to take it, and Peter’s eyes closed as he realized he loved every second of this. There was no more pain, not anymore, just Wade.  
“I love you,” he breathed into the dark room and Wade huffed behind him, his hot breath ghosting over Peter’s neck and making him shiver.   
“Love you, too,” Wade whispered, thrusting hard and deep and just perfect, so good that Peter leaned his head back.

“You okay?” Wade panted a few moments later, pulling Peter’s hips to his over and over again.   
“Yes,” Peter hissed right away, feeling a familiar tug in his groin that made him whine loudly.   
“Good. Lemme make you come.”  
Peter’s eyes widened and he almost turned hs head to look at Wade, but the Merc already moved, snaking his arm underneath Peter’s upper leg, hooking it under the knee and pulling Peter’s leg up. This position allowed Wade deeper into Peter’s bodyd and the younger man gasped, just so keeping from screaming at the pleasure surging through him. 

Peter sighed deeply, squeezing his eyes shut when he had no other choice than to let go in this position. He fell back into Wade’s hold, rocking with each thrust. His hips twitched up when he chased his orgasm, only to be pulled back by Wade relentlessly. Peter shouted, then forced his hand to move in front of his mouth to muffle his moans.   
There was nothing left in his mind but pleasure, waves over waves crashing over his body while a steady stream of pre cum began leaking from Peter’s tip. He gasped like a drowning man, holding onto the sheets with one hand, still covering his mouth with the other, until he came so hard he had to bite his finger.   
Wade thrust harder, a few quick snaps of his hips, then he pushed Peter down into the mattress roughly and came, muffling his sounds on Peter’s neck. 

There were tears running down Peter’s cheeks when he could finally breathe again, but not out of despair or pain. No, those were tears of relief, of finally being able to let go. To forget, just for a moment, about all those terrible things happening.   
For now, Peter was at home, with Bea safe and sound in her bed and Wade next to him, making him feel so incredible.   
“Again?” Peter heard himself ask, his voice breaking. Wade kissed his neck softly, his lips lingering for just a moment.   
“Only if you turn around,” Wade said quietly, still hard between them and not bothered by the tears. Peter winced when Wade pulled out, but rolled over and into his husband's embrace. Wade probably guessed what the tears meant, they knew each other so well by now.   
Still, he didn’t ask Peter to stop crying, just lovingly kissed some of the salty drops away.  
“I have a better idea,” Wade whispered between them, a smirk playing on his lips, which still brushed Peter’s cheek.   
“Huh?”   
“Yeah. Get up, c’mon.”  
Peter sighed and shook his head.   
“Wade, I’m too tired for something more acrobatic than lying here. Next time.”  
“No, you cute kinky spider. Get up or I’ll make you,” Wade threatened playfully, stepping over to the closet naked, all the while casually taking off his condom with a tissue he’d grabbed. They’d recently opted to using them again, just to make clean-up easier and quicker.   
“What are you doing?” Peter asked and sat up, his body aching all over and still longing for more. He wiped the tears from his face with a corner of the sheets, feeling only a little embarrassed of crying that much during sex. 

Wade proceeded to rummage through the closet, still completely in the nude.   
“Man, it sure is hidden. C’mon, c’mon,” he mumbled and turned with a triumphant smirk when he found what he’d been looking for.   
Bunched up in a scarred hand was Peter’s Spiderman costume, in the other Wade now held the gloves and boots.   
“Put it on. Right now – Ah ah ah, no arguing. I swear I will put it on you if you don’t.”  
“What the hell is going on?” Peter complained, cringing at his own whiny voice but not caring much about it. He just wanted to be held and loved and let go of all he’s had to see.   
“No arguing. Last warning,” Wade threatened and his tone let a shiver run down Peter’s spine at Wade’s tone. 

Wade helped him put on the boots while Peter wiggled into the tight costume and gloves. Wade kissed his cheeks and wiped away the last traces of tears quickly with the back of his hand, before pulling the mask over Peter’s face. He straightened it, making sure the eyes were in the right place, then turned to open the window.   
“Alright, and now you go out there and be Spidey for a bit. Swing around, crawl some buildings, do your thing up there.”

“I really don’t-“  
“Yes, yes, now off you go, and don’t you dare come home before, like, an hour or two.”  
“But-“  
“No buts. Go, go, go,” Wade urged, all but shoving Peter out of the window. The hero stuck to the outer wall, huffing when he pulled his mask down.   
“I don’t understand how this can help anything.”  
”Sometimes you’re not the smarter one,” Wade said simply, leaning out of the window to pinch Peter’s ankle, making him yelp and his hold on the wall slip.   
“Fuck!” he yelled, shooting a web to pull himself up between the houses.   
“You’re welcome!” Wade shouted back and closed the window, waving when Peter turned his head. 

Peter muttered some curses under his breath and swung himself up higher, only to realize that he was actually not in an easy place. He had to work to get some traction and good pull going on, his trembling muscles making it hard for Peter to really steer himself.   
With wobbly knees he landed on a crane on one of the ever present construction sites downtown. 

He huffed, that far up and in the middle of the night his breath actually coming out in little white clouds in front of his mask. Peter wanted to turn again, head home and argue with Wade, but when he stood up, his gaze fell upon the city underneath him.   
The twinkling lights all around, the ads playing all day and night, cars rushing around, making the city look like it was encased in a web of moving fairy lights. So very strong but fragile from that high up.   
Peter's shoulders sank and he relaxed, not having realized that he'd been tense again already. 

With his work, tending to Bea and spending some time with his husband, Peter hadn’t had time to go out as Spiderman that often. Usually his day was just too full to even notice it, but now that he was up above the city again, Peter realized just how much he’d missed this.   
The way the costume felt on his skin, the way his wrists tingled and his heart beat faster. Hearing the air whistle past his head whenever he propelled himself up and above another building, only to then swing low between the skyscrapers. He found himself stopping by at some old places, where he used to wait for the bad guys of the night to show up, but today it seemed quiet. 

Deciding to leave that night’s criminals to the law enforcement and other heroes, Peter swung himself up high between the skyscrapers again, smiling under his mask when some of the late night pedestrians shouted for Spiderman. At first there were some thoughts appearing in his head, but whenever he looked down at the sparkling city, at his home, everything vanished more and more, until all there was left in his mind was the next good place to attach a web and which angle to wing that would give him the best velocity. 

 

Peter laughed when he saw the time in the corner of one of the ad screens all around. He’d been out for almost three hours. He was exhausted, yes, but he was finally relaxed, with the familiar burn in his muscles and with the cool night’s air clearing his mind. He took a detour on the way home, just taking a look at the harbor in the distance, wondering if he could ever bring Bea to see this. She’d love it.   
Longing to see his little girl soon, Peter steered back towards home, smiling underneath his mask when their house showed up on the horizon. 

Out of breath, with his skin cold from the crisp night’s air, Peter climbed back into the bedroom. Wade turned around in bed, smiling lazily when he saw the hero pull off his mask and gloves quickly. He must’ve been asleep already, but had probably tried to wair for him.  
“Thank you,” Peter huffed, making Wade grin wide.   
“Oh? So now you got it?”  
“I got it. Thank you.”  
“You’re most welcome,” Wade said, reaching over to pull the blankets from Peter’s side of the bed. Of course Wade also watched as Peter peeled himself out of his costume, taking a bit since it’d been quite a while.   
“I should do this more often.”  
“You should. – When this job with S.I. is done, stay home a bit. Please. Stay with us, relax, be Spidey again for a while.”  
Peter smiled, every fiber of his being longing to do just that just now.   
“Yeah. I will,” he promised, pulling off his boots and walking over to the bed naked. Wade still hadn’t dressed, which was unusual for him, but Peter was glad to feel him when they hugged close under the blankets.   
“Ugh, you’re cold,” Wade hissed, when Peter pressed up against him, laughing about the older man’s reaction.   
”Well, flying around is pretty chilly. And I thought you could keep me warm,” Peter replied with a smirk, sliding closer.   
“Of course I will ... ugh, but I might just freeze doing it.”


	41. Chapter 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi you lovely people <3   
> Sorry for dropping off the radar again, things are still a bit crazy, but at least things are getting done now :D  
> See you again next week (hopefully, keeping all those fingers crossed), until then, take care and enjoy reading <3

„Up, up, Daddy!“  
Peter opened on eye and saw Bea standing next to the bed. Because of his night swinging around as Spiderman, Wade had let him sleep in. But that didn’t mean Bea was all that okay with him still in bed.   
“Good morning,” Peter murmured, his voice hoarse from the lack of sleep. Bea smiled and climbed up onto the mattress when Peter opened the blanket a bit. He was still completely naked underneath, so he left the blanket around his hips.  
“Goo’morn’,” Bea said and cuddled up into Peter’s arms. She was already dressed for the day, iin a pale orange dress, white tights and ruffled socks, but her hair wasn’t done yet.   
“Did you sleep well? Have you had any dreams?” Peter asked, kissing her head and rolling over onto his back, making Bea giggle. She propped her arms up on Peter’s chest and smiled.   
“Yes,” she lisped, reaching out to poke Peter’s chin.   
“What did you dream?” he asked, catching her hand and kissing it, happy to hear her laugh.   
“Fun!”   
“Oh, your dreams were fun?”  
“Yeah!”   
“That’s great.”

“Hey, you sleepyheads, gonna get up?” Wade asked from the doorway, grinning and taking a photo when Peter looked over. The younger man furrowed his brow, always a bit self conscious about being in front of the camera, probably a photographer’s tic.  
“No. Never. We’re gonna stay in bed for a week,” Peter replied and Wade laughed, then went over to pick Bea up, making her laugh when he held her upside down and kissed her stomach.   
“Really, though, you guys are gonna be late when you don’t get up. Breakfast is ready, all you gotta do is shower and join us,” Wade said, turning Bea upright again to hold her on his hip. Peter looked up to them, smiling when he saw Bea reach up to hug Wade.   
“I love you guys,” Peter sighed, watching Wade’s smile soften.   
“We love you, too. Right Bea-bear?”  
“Lu’ you.”  
“Yeah, we love you, Daddy,”  
“Lu’ you, Daddy.”

.Peter had to pretend to roll over in bed to hide his eyes for a moment, he really didn’t want Bea to ask why there were tears again.   
“So, what’s for breakfast?”, Peter asked, finally getting up to meet Bea and Wade in front of the bed. Wade reached out with his free hand, pulling Peter in.  
“Cheese,” answered Bea happily just as they were about to kiss, making them laugh. She giggled, reaching for Peter when he leaned in to kiss Wade.   
“Yeah, I made grilled cheese, so you better hurry,” the older man said, smirking when Peter took Bea’s hand and kissed it again   
“Alright, I’ll go shower and dress, you guys go ahead and start breakfast.”  
”Aye aye, captain. C’mon, Bea, you ready for yummy food?”  
“Yeah!” she shouted happily, saying something else Peter didn’t understand. He smirked, going over to the bathroom to hop into the shower. He hurried, but they were still running a little late when he rushed out of the bedroom, fumbling with his jacket. Bea was at the table, munching on some strawberries while Wade braided her hair.   
“I thought we should get her to a salon or something soon. I love all that hair but it’s getting thicker. And I’m getting a heart attack when I have to get close to her head with scissors,” Wade explained as Peter grabbed a slightly cold grilled cheese from the plate.  
Up until now Peter had been the one to occasionally cut Bea’s hair, but that wasn’t much more than a trim of her baby hair. Now everything got a bit too long and not looking all that neat anymore, and Peter wasn’t sure if he was any good at real haircuts.   
“Yeah, let’s get an appoinement. – Ugh, we’re gonna get into rush hour,” Peter mumbled, taking another bite of the grilled cheese, but Wade stopped him when he wanted to rush to the kitchen for some coffee.   
“No you won’t, don’t worry. I packed you breakfast and coffee, so you can leave as soon as you guys got your shoes on.”  
Peter sighed, smiling and jumping over to Wade to kiss him.   
“You’re perfect. Love you!” he shouted, already running off again to get his and Bea’s shoes and jacket. They were dressed in minutes, and out of the house to catch their usual subway to Stark Tower. 

Peter always made sure they got into the station before the rush hour, just so Bea wouldn’t be stressed. They got a seat and Peter smiled about the thermo mug of coffee waiting for him in his briefcase.   
“Yummy?” Bea asked, sitting in Peter’s lap, holding on to his jacket like he told her to.   
“Yeah, very yummy. You want some fruit?” he asked, knowing that Wade had packet him some together with two sandwiches in a tupper ware container.   
“No, tha’ you,” Bea said, always remembering to be polite like they taught her, looking around to watch people boarding the subway. 

As usual, when they got off the train, Bea hugged Peter close, hiding from the crowd already waiting at the track. She was a bit shy around lots of people, which was understandable. Peter was just glad she didn’t have meltdowns over it.   
“Almost there. Are you happy to go to daycare?” he asked to distract her a bit when he hurried around the station. Peter was always carrying Bea, because it was too full when they arrived downtown.   
“Play, Daddy.”  
“Yeah, you’re gonna play with your friends.”

They walked into the Tower and Bea waved hello to the secretary at the main desk, making her smile. Peter greeted her briefly, but with a smile as well, before they got into the elevator where Bea would happily push the button.   
She tiptoed for a kiss when they were at the daycare, then ran off to her room. Peter stood there for a moment and watched as she walked up to one of the few kids around – they were usually one of the first to arrive – and began playing with the pots and pans in the little kitchen.  
No matter how stressful his day got, Peter had noticed the changes in Bea. Maybe Wade had, too. She was one of the smallest kids in her group, and she’d started to speak fairly late compared to other kids. But even though she only started speaking a while ago, she’d already surpassed the others in her vocabulary and understanding.   
Peter got the usual monthly reports from Bea’s nannies at daycare stating her progress and they, too, were baffled at how well she did and how fast she learned. They would teach her a word and she would use it correctly from then on.  
She proved to be very smart, and the incident at the sublevels had Peter assume that she also had some kind of psychic ability, along with her relatively small healing factor.   
She really was something special.   
Smiling while watching her, Peter allowed himself some more moments, before turning quietly and leaving the daycare floor, checking out by brushing his bracelet over a panel next to the door. 

Before they began working on their data, Peter had assembled his team at the centre of the lab. He was unsure of how to start, but figured he just needed to.   
“Okay, so ... in the light of recent events. Of what we found out,” he began and watched as Julia averted her gaze, obviously uneasy. The others seemed not too well rested, all but Phillip, of course.  
”And I know, Phillip, for you it might not be that bad. You’ve probably seen worse-“  
“I have.”  
“Well, yeah. But, still, the offer stands for all of us. Take some time if you need it. We’ll work out a shift plan, so that none of the work piles up. I ... speaking for myself, I ... really could use a break every now and then.”  
“Understandable.”  
Peter looked up to Phillip, who met his gaze evenly.   
“Is it, though? We should-”  
“We should do good work. And sometimes, with what you find, we can't do that. It's not possible, we're still human.”  
Peter nodded, glad that the profiler agreed with him.   
“Well, then, I just wanted to let you know. We'll take breaks from now on. Since … let's be honest, it's probably not going to get better.”  
“It’s not,” Phillip sighed, looking over at his sister, who’d out of all of them looked worst.   
“So could I ... go now?”  
“Yeah. Go ahead. I’ll talk to the boss about getting us mobile working stations so if any of us feels like sleep’s not happening, we can at least make good use of it,” Peter said, hoping that Stark would understand and give them all those fancy laptops.

After Emily clocked out again to get some sleep, they all went back to work, reluctant but a bit better now with the promise of mental health breaks. The rest of the team went back to work, with Phillip now starting to compile a profile of these Hydra operations. He finally had enough data to back up his assumptions.  
Peter assisted him with linking their data bases to the reference points they collected on a digital board. 

Nobody had heard back from the doctors in the sublevels, but an hour after they started, a nurse with a yellow name tag – highest security clearance level – brought them a cooled container and a stack of documents.   
She simply stated that medical wanted them to take a look at it, then left. 

“Is it safe to open this in here?” Peter asked when he spotted the biohazard label on the container, but Julia assured him that it would be fine.   
“I'll just put it into the tube for a first glance, just to make sure,” she added, which made Peter wonder exactly what she meant by fine when she had to put the box in the sealed tube used for chemical testing.   
They men watched from a safe distance as their biochem specialist opened the box to reveal sealed clear plastic cups with liquid inside. Peter took a closer look and was horrified to see microchips swimming inside the liquid, the wires to each side floating around like tentacles.  
He knew instantly where those must be from. 

“It's microchips? Where are those from?” Julia asked in confusion, turning to look at Peter, now taking the cups out one by one, four total. Peter took a deep breath, reminding himself to start at the beginning, while taking the folder with the medical evaluation and surgery details.   
“Do you remember the boy that we found in one of the bases? I … I had some ideas and suggested medical take him in for an MRI of the brain – because of his erratic behaviour,” Peter made up, because he couldn't very well tell them his psychic toddler told him that the boy's head hurt.   
“And they found microchips?!” Julia asked in horror, now placing the cubs on a tray to have them at display on the main table for the rest of the team.  
“Seems like it.”  
Peter flipped through the documents, quickly scanning over the lines of text. “Right now he's still sedated, and will stay that way, because … oh no … because there's still one more chip in his brain they couldn't take. - Dee, show the MRI on the big screen.”  
 _“Yes, Sir.”_

A 3D image showed up, depicting the boy's brain. It showed the pre-surgery state with the four chips embedded in the brain, shockingly big in comparison to the child's head, and the wires that ran through almost his entire brain. The next picture showed the post-surgery image, four of the chips missing, now in the cups in front of them. Some of the wires were still inside his head, probably impossible to remove without causing him permanent damage.   
There was a handwritten note from the head surgeon in the documents stating that they hoped to fix that the second time around.   
One more chip was now in the boy's head, which they couldn't remove without killing him. 

“So is the chip why he's still sedated? I mean, it's in a delicate place but I guess he'd be able to wake up by now,” Julia mused, staring at the picture.   
“They want to try for a second surgery as soon as possible, but he's also still under because having all the doctors and nurses checking on him all the time would stress him too much.”  
“It's probably better anyway … - a second operation, you said … it's … not going to be this easy.”  
“It's pretty close to the brain stem,” Phillip commented now, looking over at Julia expectantly. The scientist nodded.   
“It is. Removing this would be extremely difficult, any mistake could result in irrevocable damage, leaving him unable to walk, talk, or flat out dead.”

Peter nodded, already scanning through the – again, handwritten, maybe for confidentiality – notes, where the head surgeon asked for the team's assistance.  
“They say that they would also try to just disable the chip and leave it in, but they need a device that does exactly that without affecting the machinery in the OR that keeps the boy alive during surgery.”  
“And they want us to build that?” Preston said, the first time he's said anything in this little meeting of theirs, now stepping up when it got technical. “A disruptor … and it would have to be small, in case they have to get it close.”  
Peter nodded, already jumping on that train of thought, because if he had any actual experience in anything, it was making small devices.   
“We can order some parts from SI Medical once we have all the specs ready, and then get something together, maybe with laparoscopic tools?”  
“Sounds good, can we take one of these apart?” Preston asked and reached for one of the cups, but Julia stopped him.   
”Not until I haven’t had a look at it. – Peter, does medical know what these did to the boy?”  
Peter flipped through the report, then shook his head.   
“No, they just figured it was bad having them, and took them out.”  
“Okay, then I’ll have a look at them first, just so that we know what exactly they did,” Julia said, taking the cups again before Preston could even get near them. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you boys one to play with as soon as I can.”  
“Untul then, let’s get back to the data so we don’t waste any time,” Peter said, and the A.I. Dee put the scans and images aside on the smallest monitor, to pull up the board they’d been working on on the big screen, and the rows of code and data on their workstations.   
While the men rummaged through data and tried to sort the mess of horror out, Julia worked as fast as she could on the microchips, having almost all of Dee’s attention to assist her. The A.I. searched all the available medical databases for the chemical compounds Julia could identify. 

 

Meanwhile, Wade was loudly singing to a song coming over his headphones while working the floor with a sand grinder. The previous owners had decided on hardwood floors – quite expensive ones nonetheless – but it'd taken quite a beating, so he had to refurbish it a bit before the new tenants moved in. Two buckets of varnish already waited near the door, but Wade mused he might as well work on the bathroom real quick before putting it on. He had to treat the non tiled walls with a new moisture resistant coat and wanted to install new faucets while he was there. The old ones were still okay, but with the price they were charging each month, okay felt like ripping people off. When they charged a lot, Wade wanted it to be worth a lot as well. Besides, he was done faking.   
He was done not being honest, he wanted to be the good guy.   
So good, in fact, that he even installed covers for all the electrical sockets in all apartments, just to be nice. For once it did look better, but it was also baby and animal proof, which was always good. 

He finished his work, was dusty and sweaty all over, but hadn't felt all that at peace with himself in forever. It was great working like that and being able to be home with his loved ones a lot.   
Which was also why he broke out into a big smile when his phone chimed, alerting him that he'd have to pick Bea up in an hour. Wade hurried back upstairs to their place to shower and change, then back down to the parking lot to drive to the Tower.   
He listened to the charts – adult music for once before it was back to children’s songs – and thought about all the fun things they’d to for the rest of the day. Of course Bea would need a nap after having lunch, but after that Wade would take her shopping. She’d outgrown some of her dresses and tights, but they also needed some groceries. 

Just when he entered the Tower, Wade got a brief text from Peter stating that the younger man won’t have time for a lunch break with his family today. Wade sighed, wanting Peter to take some time off finally, because by now it was obvious how much the research was straining him.   
No wonder, really, with what the team uncovered.   
Wade felt anger surging through him at the thought of children being fucking sold out somewhere, to creepy old men drugging them and doing god knows what to them. It all vanished again, though, when Wade entered the daycare, brushing his bracelet over a scanner near the door as he learned to do by now.   
This time the gates were all in front of the doors, so Wade went over to Bea’s room. He carefully stayed out of sight from the kids, but caught the nannies attention by waving. She didn’t look as shocked as the first time they’d met, and went to get Bea.   
“Papa!” she called a moment later, spotting him at the door and running off right away. Wade almost expected her to open the gate and run out to him, but she seemed to remember their talk the other day and waited for the nanny to open it for her.   
“Hi, my love. How was your day?” Wade asked and hugged her close, a smile appearing on his lips right away.   
“Fun, Papa! I paint, look, look!” she said and pointed to her pictures that the nanny brought with them.   
“Oh, wow, that looks awesome! Can we give one to granny May?”  
”Yes! Give nanna!”  
”She’ll be super happy, lemme just pack that stuff up,” Wade said and took the pictures to put them into Bea’s diaper bag. He talked for a moment longer with the nanny, and was glad when she told him that Bea had been very well behaved. 

“See Daddy?” Bea asked when they were on their way to the elevator. She had to reach up to hold Wade’s hand, which was really one of the cutest things. Wade noticed that she was actually using more words put together now, not just saying one at a time and letting them guess. He had no idea if that was normal for her age, but it was cute and smart and he loved it.   
“No, Daddy’s at work. Were gonna go and have lunch together, just you and me,” Wade explained and let Bea push the button.  
“Boy?” she asked, just as the elevator coash began moving down.   
“Huh? What boy? From daycare?”  
Bea shook her head, reaching up to point at one of the elevator buttons with “sub13” written underneath.  
”Boy?” Bea asked again and Wade furrowed his hairless brow.   
“Uh, no, he’s ... he’s not there today. Let’s go home,” Wade said, while pulling his phone from his pocket. 

At the lab, Peter’s phone chimed with a message from Wade. He expected to see a photo, maybe of Bea, maybe of the two of them, but instead it was just text.   
_”So, Bea just asked about a boy? That she met at ‘sub13’?”_  
Peter sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. Of course he hadn't thought of Bea telling Wade about their little adventure. And of course Wade would ask.   
“Oh boy, here goes ...” he murmured and typed the text, incredibly guilty already for not telling Wade. 

Wade frowned at his screen when he was walking to the car with Bea.  
 _”I'm sorry, I got to see the boy you brought from one of the bases. Only chance at a visit was when I had Bea, she saw him. Tell Bea he’s with a doctor. Talk later?”_  
Wade huffed a breath out through his nose, wanting to be angry but actually couldn't really. Bea didn't seem shaken or anything, she just asked for the boy she saw. Which she probably remembered because there were so many kids at daycare together but he was all alone down in the lab.  
Another text came in from Peter just as Wade was about to open the car.   
“Daddy?” Bea asked, pointing to the phone.   
“Yeah. He says … he says the boy is okay, a doctor came and made his ouchie all better.”  
“Yay!” she said and seemed happy, climbing into the car and into her seat with Wade's help. She babbled something that he didn't understand, watching him close all the buckles on the seat.   
“All safe and sound, let's go home,” Wade said, kissing Bea's cheek before he closed her door. 

On the way home she sang along to some of the children's songs from her CD, making Wade grin. She had the cutest little voice and by the end of the CD they both sang the songs loudly. 

“Well, someone’s got an apetite,” Wade said as he watched Bea finish off a full plate of food and then sign for milk.   
“Peeease,” she insisted, and Wade brought her the milk and carried her over to the nursery while she drank. He sat her down on the floor and started cleaning up a bit, entertaining Bea with a few songs from her little pink CD player. She swayed side to side until she was done with her milk, then she pushed herself up again and Wade watched in amusement as Bea reached up as high as she could to put the empty bottle up onto the changing table for Wade to take with him.   
They read a book together and then it was time for Bea’s nap, and for Wade to take care of the laundry, place some orders for the next repairs on the house, and sweep the floors. 

 

At Peter’s lab, Julia worked on the microchips, while Preston tried to get as much information out of the computer as possible. Peter and Phillip were at the main station, trying to piece together what they already had to get their profile of the bases done.   
It felt like they just needed one more breakthrough, one important piece of information, to finish the puzzle and complete a new search algorythm. From there, it would be the ground teams taking over, infiltrating the bases and rescuing all the people who were suffering at the hands of HYDRA.  
After about two hours of all of them working in concentrated silence, Julia told Dee to save her work and asked her colleagues to get together.

“What have you got?” Peter asked and sat down behind the main table so that Julia could step up and present her work. On her own desk, she’d cut off some of the wires of the chips and placed into test tubes, the liquid inside turning different colors. There were cotton swabs in other tubes and on tiny glass plates to watch under a microscope.  
Peter was really glad to have specialists like her on his team – a work like this would’ve probably taken him several days.   
“They've used the newest technology microchips, they work by releasing chemicals and hormones into the brain, which the chips create themselves because they're loaded with not only data and electronics, but also chemical compounds. Whatever solution is needed gets transmitted through the wires to all parts of the brain.”  
“Does each of the chips create a different chemical?” Preston asked, watching a digital model of a chip’s workings play on the big screen.   
“Yes and no. The two in the frontal lobe sent out hormones to make him pliable and open to suggestion. The one back here,” - Julia pointed to the schematics of the boy’s brain again - “released strong neurotoxins that made him sick and hurt, possibly for punishment. “  
Peter clenched his hands into fists but nodded, encouraging them to go on. With a quick gesture to the last chip seen on the 3D image, Julia continued.   
“This last one was only sending out electric signals. Because of its location we assume it was to control his body, make certain body parts numb or stimulate muscle activity to make him stronger and faster.”  
“So … basically they can remote control him? Make him aggressive and strong at times, and sleepy and sluggish at others?” Peter concluded and his colleague agreed.

“Is there any information on what he'll be like when he wakes up?” Peter asked.  
“No clue. He might not remember much of what has happened because they worked on his frontal lobe. It could also be that he forgot how to walk, talk, speak. It could also be that now that he's finally free to do as he pleases, he opens up to us. At this point, all we can do is wait and see.”  
Peter nodded, not really wanting to think about what this boy must go through at this moment, and all of that without a parent or close person nearby. He wondered if the boy's had a handler, or someone he felt attached to. Probably not.  
“Alright, then we’ll do our best. Let’s try and get the disruptor ready, we need to permanently disable the last chip,” he said and went back to work, this time with Julia assisting them. She gave them one of the less important chips to take apart and they quickly found where the remaining one would administer the electric signals. 

 

Right on time Bea woke up from her nap, Wade grinning when he saw her sit up in her crib and rub her eyes. He prepared a snack for her, cutting up fruit while giving her some time to really wake up – something he discovered helped wonders on a cranky post-nap baby.  
When he had a full bowl of fruit and some cooled down tea in a sippy cup ready for his best girl, Wade got into the nursery.   
“Good afternoon, little princess,” he greeted, Bea’s head popping up over the edge of the crib when she stood up. Her hair was all over the place and Wade smiled when he stroked her head, smoothing it down at least a bit.   
“Papa!” she said and reached up with both arms, Wade picking her up right away. He changed her diaper and took some pants with him from the closet, since he wanted to get going after she’d had a snack.   
“We’re going shopping today, little princess. You’ll love it, lotsa new clothes for Bea,” Wade explained, setting her down in her play area, where she went to the table right away. She picked up a piece of apple and nibbled on it, taking another one with her free hand and offering it to Wade.   
“Oh, thanks,” he said, taking a bite.

They were right on schedule, a rare thing when planning a day with a toddler. The moment they got to the mall, Wae’s phone chimed with a quick text from Peter asking about their day.   
“Wanna take a picture for Daddy? Say cheeeeese!” Wade said, holding the phone out wide. Bea smiled, looking at Wade’s phone for the photo. The Merc told himself that he’d only gotten that Hello Kitty phone case because it made it easier to have Bea look at it for pictures. He sent it over to Peter, hoping it would cheer the youger man up a bit. Wade could only imagine what they would uncover that day, could only hope that it wouldn’t hit Peter as hard as the last few days. 

“Papa, snack?” Bea asked, pointing to a stand she saw in the distance.   
“No, sweetie, that lady’s got newspapers. No snacks. But we’ll find one, I bet,” Wade replied, leaning over the handle of the shopping cart to kiss Bea’s cheek. She smiled and pointed to his phone.  
“No texts, yet, Daddy’s probably busy working.”  
“Oh,” Bea said, looking around again to watch the other people at the mall. 

Since Wade was now a master at discount shopping, he’d waited for the special sale for about two weeks. Everything was up to 70% off and when he used some of his coupons and his customer card, they barely paid anything.  
It wasn’t exactly that they had to be cheap about it, but Wade still liked to make a bargain when he had the chance. And especially with baby and kids clothing, prices were incredible. So he’d stock up on some nice clothes in several sizes today and just store them until Bea fit into them.   
Wade surpressed a sigh, because he’d love to do this with Peter. He really wished the younger man would just take some days off. Yes, he knew how dire the situation was, but there was a whole team working on the case, so for the sake of his mental health, Peter should be able to take a day or so off to spend with his family.   
“Daddy?” Bea asked again as if on cue, pointing to Wade’s pocket where he always kept his phone. Wade wondered briefly whether or not it was normal for a baby her age to remember those things. But it probably was, since she also knew where Wade hid the chocolate. And that on “Daddy days” it was very unlikely that she’d get cheerio’s for a snack. 

“No text yet, we gotta be patient,” Wade replied, happy to see Bea nodding right away. She knew by now what it meant to be patient and wait, but sometimes it just wasn’t that easy for an energetic little personality like her. 

Once they were at the children’s clothing section and Wade saw lots of mommies pushing full carts around already. For the basic parts, Wade just picked Bea’s clothes out by himself, but for some pieces he actually wanted her opinion. She had her own head already and was pretty clear with the things she didn’t like, so Wade hoped to get any meltdowns in front of the closet out of the way.   
“How about this one? I really like it,” Wade said and held up a dress for Bea to see. She leaned out of the shopping cart a bit to grab it.   
“Like, like,” she said happily, and Wade smirked. He had already chosen one size up and he took the same dress again two sizes up.   
“And this one?” Wade said, pulling a checkered dress from the rack.   
“No!” Bea said and pouted, making Wade lift his eyebrows and quickly put it away.   
“Well,glad you got an opinion,” he said, suprised when she picked one all by herself, pointing to it. It was almost all white, with black details on all hems and a black belt and bow.   
“That’s super cute. Let’s get you this one. – We also need some new pants for you, and tights. Can’t just buy dresses no matter how cute they are.”  
“Cute,” Bea repeated, laughing when Wade leaned down to kiss her cheek.   
“Yeah, you’re cute. Super cute.”

They went through the underwear section then, where Wade stocked up for all of them, and even got a few cute pairs of tights for Bea and some leggins a few sizes up.   
Next up were pants and Wade even found some baggier ones for himself – too tight denim was a big no no with all the scars. Which didn’t stop Wade to pick out two tighter pairs for Peter, because a fine ass like this just couldn’t not be appreciated. 

About an hour later they got a cart full of clothes for Bea, and Wade made one last round through the shoe section before checking out. He picked two pairs for Bea, pretty glad about the sale going on, so he could shop for the bigger sizes already.   
“Papa, this,” she said, lisping again, but it was really cute. Wade looked where she was pointing and furrowed his brow.   
”What, for me?” Wade asked in confusion and looked at the bright red sneakers Bea was pointing at.   
“Yeah!” she said and babbled something that sounded a bit like ‘pretty’.  
“Mh, I dunno,” Wade mumbled, unsure about being so flashy. Sure, he wore a lot of red, because other colors often looked weird on his skin.   
“Papa, peeeeeease!” Bea urged, always forgetting about the L in ‘please’.  
“Alright, alright, I’ll wear them. But if someone thinks they’re weird then it’s all your fault,” Wade said, kissing Bea’s cheek, seeing her grin.   
“Cute, papa,” Bea said, smiling bright when Wade looked at her.   
“Honey, I’m so not cute. If anything, I’m very manly.”  
“Cute.”  
“Manly.”  
“Cute.”  
Bea laughed about the banter and Wade grinned, letting her win in the end.

They drove home with a trunk full of new clothes and as soon as they got home Wade made them snacks and went to clear out Bea’s wardrobe. She sat at her little playing table in her room for a while, munching cheddar bunny snacks and watching Wade put all the too small clothes into a big cardboard box. Some things he put in a smaller box to donate right away, but some he just couldn’t part with, yet. Wade also had in mind that there may be other children that they could find and then they’d maybe need small clothes again.  
“Dwaw, Papa,” Bea said and picked up a case with pencils from her toy shelf.   
“Oh, you wanna draw? I’ll get you some paper,” Wade replied, taking a few sheets of white paper and some colored ones from a stack on another shelf.   
”Ta’ you,” Bea said politely and sat back down at her table, beginning to draw.   
”You’re very welcome,” Wade replied, then went back to sorting through Bea’s clothes. Some of the new things soaked in the bathtub already, so that any excess dye was flushed out. The pants and underwear had all taken a round in the washer already, the underwear getting dried right now while the pants were on a drying rack in front of the window – Wade didn’t want to risk shrinking them.

“What are you drawing?” Wade asked while he was ruffling through Bea’s tights, finding some with holes and throwing them out, keeping only two pairs to make her some super cute 80s style legwarmers.   
“You.”  
“Me?”  
“Yeah,” Bea said and showed Wade her picture. He saw an orange and yellow blob which should maybe be a person, with some red lines in between that were either his scars or his red suit.  
“What`s that?” he asked when she made two big blue circles over the head of her figure.  
“Eyes.”  
“But my eyes aren’t blue.”  
“Boo.”  
“Blue, yeah. But Papa’s eyes are yellow, see?” Wade insisted and pointed to his eyes. Bea looked at him and shook her head, continuing to give her artisan rendition of Wade bright blue eyes.   
“Boo,” Bea said again, smiling while she ran her blue pencil over the paper again.   
“Well, if you say so. I’m all for artistic freedom,” Wade replied, patting Bea’s soft hair before returning to his work.


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D  
> Another loaded evening chapter for you sweet people, hope you like it ;) See you in a bit, until then, take care and enjoy reading <3

That evening, Peter came home late, looking like a dead man walking and announcing right away that he’d only work half the day on Thursday and stay home on Friday.   
“That is, if I can manage to get the interviews done tomorrow,” he mumbled, pushing off his shoes and placing his keys into a box next to the door.   
“Which interviews?” Wade asked, smirking as he saw Bea hurry to put down her play-dough toys and run to Peter.   
“With the women from the bases. We need some more info to put together a full profile. I think we’re close to finishing it.”   
Peter greeted Bea and lifted her up, hugging her tight and kissing her.   
“You think we can find them?”  
“I really hope so. But I have a good feeling ... well, if there are any good feelings in this mission.”  
Wade nodded, putting on a happy face again.   
“Let’s not talk about it for tonight, okay? Our sweetheart has missed you,” he said, grinning when Bea clung to Peter. He sighed, keeing her wrapped up in his arms as he went to the couch to sit down.   
“I missed you, too. You and Papa. Have you had fun shopping?”  
“Yeah, fun.”  
“What did you buy?”  
Wade saw that Bea curled up on Peter’s chest, placing her thumb in her mouth. Lately, that wasn’t that much a sign of her being tired, but more of her being very comfortable.   
“Lots of stuff. I also got you some clothes, but most of it is still in the laundry,” Wade explained while he put some pasta into a big pot.   
“Thanks. Next time I’ll go with you.”  
“Next time, we could get a haircut for Bea. There’s a Salon near the mall that’s also for kids.”  
“Great. Oh, I’m so looking forward to staying with you guys.”  
“It's gonna be great. Let's have, like, a family date. We'll get Bea a haircut, any then we'll have lunch together and maybe shop a bit.”

Peter smiled while he listened, his nose buried in Bea's hair, enjoying that scent of hers that he couldn't describe with anything else than baby. Bea leaned against his chest, suckling on her thumb and being content with just being held like that. Actually it was her playtime and she should be energetic and run around, but Peter was glad that she wasn't. He felt a painful sting in his heart when he thought that maybe she'd really missed him a lot in the past days, when his work had almost swallowed him up.   
“I love you,” he whispered to her, placing a soft kiss to her head.  
“Lu' you,” Bea replied quietly around her thumb and Peter smiled, incredibly happy to hear that.  
“Are you two cuddlin' all without me?” Wade asked from the kitchen, where he started to chop vegetables for the pasta sauce. Peter laughed quietly, nuzzling his chin on Bea's hair.   
“We are, sorry. But I missed holding her.”

Wade chuckled, letting them cuddle until dinner was ready. Bea stayed in Peter's lap the whole time, but eventually he got a book to entertain her. Peter got to help Bea eat, laughed when she told him that there was a carrot on her fork. 

When it was bedtime for Bea, Wade read her a story while Peter gently rocked her on the rocking chair, her eyes slowly closing. She was barely awake when the story ended, just mumbling something when Peter kissed her and let Wade carry her to the crib.   
“Goodnight, my princess,“ Peter heard Wade whisper and smiled to himself, happy to have his family around. While Bea and Wade talked for a bit in the nursery, Peter went to pick up the laundry, more than okay with giving them this moment. He'd take his turn one of those days.   
He carried two big bins of dried clothes to the bedroom. Not the most romantic of actions for their alone time, but it had to be done.  
“You want something to drink?” Wade asked quickly, passing behind Peter.   
“Yeah, water, please,” he replied, pushing the bedroom door open with his foot and setting the laundry bins down on the floor.   
He sorted piles for socks and underwear, shirts and pants before he started to fold the pants.   
“You like the pants?” Wade asked behind him, setting two bottles of water onto the nightstands.   
“Yeah, they’re great. – Could you-“   
Peter fell silent when he turned and saw that Wade was already sitting on the edge of the bed, ready to find pairs of socks and roll them up together. At first Peter had thought it to be an optical illusion, just his eyes playing a trick on him or the light in the room making him see something that wasn’t there. But when he moved closer, he stil saw it.  
“Wade! Your eyes!”   
“What? What’s with them?” the Merc asked, bewildered.   
“They’re ... “ Peter began, kneeling up to get a closer look. He gasped softly and reached out to frame Wade’s face with his hands.   
“Is that flirting or should I be worried?” Wade asked after a moment, amusement in his voice.   
“Wade, your eyes are blue,” Peter stated and tilted Wade’s head just a little, but the color remained the same.  
“Yeah, right,” Wade smirked, “Ain’t Halloween yet and that’s not even a good spook.”  
“No, I mean it! Look for yourself!”

He pulled Wade to the bathroom where the Merc stared at his reflection for a long moment, his now blue eyes wide.   
“Just ... to make sure ... you’re seeing this too, right?”  
“Yes.”  
“I’m not hallucinating?”  
“No.”  
“They’re blue ... right?”  
“Yes,” Peter finally agreed, a gentle smile curving his lips. “And I think Bea did that.”  
Wade fell silent a long moment, then nodded, still looking at himself. Peter could only imagine what it must be like to see his own eyes again after all that time.   
“I think so, too ... she ... she drew a picture of me ... and I asked what’s the blue stuff.”   
While he talked, Wade carefully tilted his head, rolling his eyes to see if the color changed, which it never did. “And she said it’s my eyes and I was like no baby, my eyes are yellow. But she said that’s my eyes ... blue, she said. I really didn’t think much about it, because she also draws pink clouds and orange trees.”  
Peter smiled, incredibly happy that somehow Bea managed to give Wade even more of his old self back.   
“Petey, she’s so amazing ...,” Wade mumbled, still staring at himself.   
Slowly, Peter slid his arms around Wade’s waist from behind, gently hugging him and looking over his shoulder into the mirror.   
“How did she do it? Have you noticed anything?”  
Wade shrugged, his hands stroked over Peter’s arms until he could entwine their fingers.   
“I’m not sure ... well, she did give me a super long hug tonight ...”  
“How did she know to change your eye color, though?” Peter mused, already running through possible explanations in his head, his mind running a mile a minute, trying to remember if he’d read anything like this on the mutant forums online.   
“I don’t know how she even knew ... like, that my eyes are even _supposed_ to be blue, you know?”  
“Yeah ... I’d love to ask her, but ...”  
Peter trailed off and looked up as Wade turned around to him.   
”Honey, please ... like, I know you mean well and all ... but let’s just not do anything about it?”  
Peter looked into Wade’s eyes for a moment, realizing with a strange pull in his heart that this was the first time ever he saw Wade’s real eyes.  
“Because you don’t want her to be tested?” Peter guessed, and gently reached up when Wade ducked his head.   
“Yeah.”  
Peter nodded, knowing where Wade’s words came from.   
“You know I wouldn’t want her to be ... exploited or anything, right? I just wanna know how her powers work. So that nobody would want to test on her later on,” Peter explained, his hands now on Wade’s hips, holding him softly.  
“I know, but ... can’t we wait? For a while? I want her to just ... enjoy life. I don’t want her to worry about anything. Let’s wait a bit longer, please,” Wade whispered, shooting a quick glance into the mirror again as if to assure himself that his new old eye color lasted.   
“But I could ... take some notes on what I observe, right?”  
Wade laughed, pulling Peter close. He seemed to happy and relaxed, maybe still not believing that he got that part of his old self back.   
“To satisfy the scientist: yes. Observe away.”  
“Thanks.”

“Maybe it won't even last ...” Wade mumbled, doubt crossing his face when his hands fell and he looked into the bedroom. Peter leaned into him and brushed a kiss to Wade's chin.   
“Then at least we got to see how you'd look with blue eyes now,” the younger man said, smiling gently when the corner of Wade's mouth turned up into a half smile.   
“Yeah. How does it look?”  
“Beautiful.”  
Wade huffed out a laugh, still looking away bashfully. Peter didn't press him about it, he didn't want Wade to be uncomfortable.  
“So, uh …” Wade began after a moment, his hands running over Peter's back, all the way up to his shoulders. It always felt so good, somehow Wade's hands fit onto Peter's back so perfectly, like they were made to hold him. “How 'bout we fold all that laundry and then get some adult things on?”  
Peter laughed, kissing Wade again.   
“Sure. You do the socks.”  
“I’m better at doing you.”  
“We’ll never know until the socks are folded.”  
“Ugh, fine.”

 

The next morning Peter almost refused to go to work, seriously considering calling his off-day early. He didn't want to spend his day buried in data again, but rather with Bea and Wade.   
“C'mon, Spidey, one more day of you bein' smart and then you can change dirty diapers and sing about that ole McDonald,” Wade said, packing him some sandwiches because he'd miss lunch again today. Peter laughed, thinking that he'd love nothing more right now.  
Peter watched Bea pick some cereal out of her bowl and eat it, along with some fruit from a different bowl. Wade poured some coffee in a thermo mug, screwing on the lid.   
“I love you two.”  
“We love you, too,” Wade replied right away, still looking at him with those wonderful blue eyes. When Wade came into her room in the morning, she had laughed and hugged him, but said nothing about the blue eyes.   
Peter still wondered how in the world she knew, or how she could even change the color like that.   
“Tell me, can you see any better?” Peter asked out of the blue, leaning against the kitchen island. Since it was just him on the way to work today, he could spend some more minutes talking. Wade looked to him briefly.  
“Well, I never had bad sight. Like, ever. I dunno. I don't think anything changed – oh, but there's no burning today, like at all.”  
Peter nodded, making a mental note about that. Because of his healing factor, sometimes Wade's eyes would burn or sting, and they'd look irritated from time to time.   
“So she could have … healed you from that?”  
“Or my healing factor coulda done that. I have good days after all.”  
“Hm.”  
That was true, but Peter couldn't help but think that Bea had something to do with it. Maybe during the next few days they'd find out more, since it seemed like the color stayed now. 

 

An hour later Peter was at the lab, taking some last notes for his team before heading off again. He'd set up an appointment at the StarkMedical facility all the victims of the bases were treated.   
Everything was extremely secured and Peter had to get his briefcase and himself through a scanner, then patted down, then his electronics searched before he could even enter the floor. 

His first stop was the nursery, he looked through the bullet proof window to find all of the babies unharmed except some scratches. He spotted the twins in a bigger crib, the ones the team found in the rubble, cuddled together and sleeping peacefully.

“Dr. Parker?”  
“Yes,” Peter said and turned to see a white-haired man standing behind him. He adjusted his rectangular glasses, looking at Peter with friendly, dark eyes.   
“Hello, I'm Dr. Yeun, I’m responsible for everyone rescued from the facilities,” he said, and Peter saw on his name tag that he was also a surgeon. He immediately wondered whether Dr. Yeun had performed the operation on the boy. Then again, it would probably take a very experienced brain surgeon and a medical robotics specialist to do that.  
They shook hands.  
“Dr. Peter Parker, lead scientific investigator with the S.I. special units,” Peter felt pretty great introducing himself like this. “I’m glad you had some time to spare for me.”  
”Sure, anything I can do to help.”

They now stood in front of the window together, watching the babies either sleep or move around in their beds.   
“Are you going to bring them to the orphanage?”, Peter asked, wondering how many in total would be there by then.   
“Probably. When they're fully healed, that is. We don't want to risk infection, so every last scratch has to heal before they go,” the doctor answered, looking seriously through the window.   
Peter nodded, now taking a closer look one by one, but there was of course nothing visible.  
“Did any of them show signs of mutation – despite the healing factor?”  
“No. Not yet, possibly. There aren't many threats or triggers around here, maybe that changes in the orphanage.”  
“Hm,” Peter mumbled, knowing from experience that even a tantrum can be enough to trigger the mutation in children that young. He made a mental note of visiting again, maybe with Bea, so she could play with kids who were more like her than anywhere else. 

“We'll have one more tomorrow,” the doctor mentioned after a brief pause. “That'll be the last one. For now.”  
“They found one? After all that time?” Peter asked, disbelieving. It’s been weeks since the last base was blown up.   
“She was found five days after the twins, but had to go into surgery immediately, so I guess she didn’t show up in the lists. She'll be out of the ICU tomorrow and then stay with the others until they're all ready for transport. - I ... no matter how other ... conventional ... doctors handle mutants, I think no child should have to suffer, you know. Those places … are an abomination.”  
“We'll do our best closing every last one. - Thank you for your work, doctor,” Peter said honestly, because sadly doctors like this one were rare. Most treated mutant patients by now, but for much higher fees than regular humans, some still refused to even let mutants into their practices. 

Peter took out his tablet then and asked some more detailed questions, adding little digital notes to each of the patient’s data cards the hospital had sent him a week ago.   
When all the kids had medical clearance, they were due for one last blood draw which would be used to determine their DNA profile and find possible matches around the world.   
After he’d compiled everything, Peter sent the data via a secure connection directly to the lab, so Julia and Emily – who were the only ones at the lab at that time – could continue doing great work. 

The easiest task was done, so Peter steeled himself for what was to come when he looked up at Dr. Yeun.   
“Could I … do you think I could talk to one of the women? Is any one of them … coherent enough?”   
The doctor looked as if he’d flat out decline for a moment, then his gaze flickered to the back of the hallway, where no doubt the adult patient’s rooms were.   
“They are all awake and talking, but … well, there is maybe one who'd be willing. I'll send a nurse to ask. But, Dr. Parker, I have to inform you that it's not desired that anyone is alone in a room with any of the women or children. So one of my nurses will stay, and I have to ask you to keep it brief.”  
“Oh, yeah of course. I just have a few questions and I'll try to keep it as gentle as possible,” he promised, feeling bad for even asking, but then again he had to know. To get on with the mission, they had to find out more about what happened inside the labs, not just data but first hand experience. 

The doctor talked to a nurse while Peter waited, and a moment later a different woman came to take him to one of the rooms. She was tall and had broad shoulders, clearly a strong person. But it was her eyes that really convinced Peter that she would stand her ground, the steely, resolute glance she shot him immediately making Peter the one to follow. 

“Wait here,” she said, which wasn't at all an offer. Peter just nodded, standing by the door as the nurse knocked and went in. She talked to someone inside, then came back out after a few minutes.  
“You can come in,” she just said and Peter thanked her quietly. He made sure to have both his hands in clear view, one holding his briefcase and tablet computer, the other free to open and close the door.   
“Hello, I'm Dr. Parker,” he introduced himself, mindful to not be too loud and talk clearly. 

The woman sitting by the window was incredibly thin and ill-looking, with ashy skin and dark circles under her eyes. Peter didn't know how long she'd been in this hospital, but he could hardly imagine her being even worse off when she got here. Her bed was the only one in the room, and the digital clipboard at the foot of it showing rows and rows of data sets, so she'd had several procedures done to her.   
Over black sweatpants and a grey shirt – probably issued by the hospital – her shoulders were covered by a wool blanket, wrapped around her torso tightly. There was a line running from an IV bag on a metal holder to her very thin arm.  
“Hello,” she said, barely a whisper crossing her slightly chapped lips. As he stepped closer to her, Peter noticed a very faint shadow of a bruise on her right cheek.   
Her wrists and ankles were bandaged and it seemed like there was other thick bandaging across her stomach, showing under the t-shirt.   
Of course Peter could have asked to see her patient's data, to be informed about all procedures done on her, could even demand to check the bandages or see surgery scars, but he didn't. He'd find out later.   
“You can sit here,” the nurse said, gesturing to a chair not at the small table by the window where the woman sat, but underneath the television. It wasn't matching the others and probably extras for visitors.   
“Thanks,” Peter hurried to say and sat down, then pulled a recording device from his briefcase.   
“If you could just put that on the table, please. Thanks,” he mumbled, not wanting to step up to the woman without permission, or just move on his own.   
The nurse took the device with a nod, placing it on the far edge of the table. The woman eyed it for a moment, then looked at Peter again.  
“Thanks, for … having me. Uhm, I just have a few questions, but please feel free to tell me if you'd rather not answer,” Peter began, feeling very uneasy because the woman sat as far away from him as possible and still looked ready to run.   
“Okay.”  
“Good. Uh, how … how long have you been … there?”

It took a moment for her to answer her hands moved very slowly until she was covering the right hand with the left, holding onto herself.   
“Four years.”  
“And … - I'm sorry, I have to ask – how many -”  
“Twelve times,” she whispered and Peter quietly repeated it for the recording, then thanking her. She continued quietly, but inched her chair closer when she remembered the recorder.  
“I've been pregnant twelve times. I've given birth seven times.”  
It took Peter only a second to figure out that she either had to be a mother of twins or having been pregnant for the entire time of her stay in the facility. Either one was devastating to even think about.   
“How long did the … babies … stay with you?”  
“Not at all. I've only seen three of them, the others I've only heard. I think some of them were premature, but nobody ever told me anything, so ... yeah.”  
Peter had to lower his head and push the memories of Bea's birth aside. That and the mental image of some doctor taking her away from him, this wonderful, tiny person.   
“And … do you know, where they went? What happened to the children?”  
“Not with my own. But I've heard … that they bring them somewhere else. They take some kind of test right after they're born, I've seen a doctor poke their finger.”  
“Have you heard of children without mutations?”  
A long pause followed, where Peter thought she wouldn't answer anymore.  
“I didn't know it was … mutation. Sometimes … other women said, when this test they did didn't work out … they bring the children somewhere else. Usually they stayed somewhere around, we could hear them cry sometimes. But not the ones where the test failed ... I don’t know, it was just a rumor, but I think they might have sold them?”  
Peter said nothing, because he didn’t want to give too much away and maybe traumatize the woman even more. He just gestured he’d understood, and she continued.   
“Each time I was pregnant again I thanked god, even though at the same time I just wanted to die. But what would wait for me could I not get pregnant was probably worse than death, because they would talk about prices of some sort. They sell women, too, I think.”  
So they were probably on the right tracks, Peter thought. He nodded and gathered his things.  
Peter thanked her again for sharing this information with him and made to get up, when her fragile hand lifted to stop him.   
“Can I … ask you something?”  
“Of course,” he said right away, putting his briefcase down again.  
“Do you have kids?”  
He wasn't sure how to answer, but he also couldn't just lie. It was probably obvious from his reaction anyway.  
“I … One of the babies from … the base … is my husband's, from his stolen DNA. We kept her.”  
The nurse just turned her head a bit in his direction, maybe keeping from staring. The woman nodded, a single tear streaming down her cheek.   
“Is she happy?”, she asked, barely more than a whisper.  
“Very. I'm glad for that. I … I was on the first mission … at a base … I rescued her.”  
“So you saw.”  
“I did. And … that's why my team and I are working on finding every last one of those bases … so that nobody has to ever see something like this again.”  
She didn’t react much to that, Peter suspected the shock and trauma she went through had her feeling numb for a long time.   
“Do you think … I heard the children were brought to an orphanage … maybe I could visit sometime?”  
“Of course you can. You're also welcome to stay. Please, you … you're not alone. Not anymore.”  
It felt pathetic, not enough, to just say that, but it was the truth. Peter wanted her to know that. Another tear streamed down her cheek as she nodded.  
Before Peter could reach the door, she said something else.   
“Ask 517. She's been there the longest, almost from the start.”  
It took Peter a moment to realize that the women must call each other with their patient numbers from the base, kind of like a nickname. Maybe also because learning the real name wouldn’t do much good if your new friend just vanished after a while. 

Peter looked over at the nurse, who's eyes had widened. She looked puzzled for a moment, then slowly turned to the woman and Peter thought that this just couldn't be true. He knew what this look meant.   
“I'm … sorry, but … she passed this morning.”  
The woman just lowered her head a bit, no reaction showing on her face.   
“Do you know what happened to her?” Peter ventured carefully, hoping that wasn't too far.  
“Not really. They tried something … different with her … I don't know what, but she was taken away, too. But brought back every time. She got pregnant.”  
Peter and the nurse exchanged a look, then he turned to the woman again.   
“Thank you again, for speaking to me. And … if you need anything,” he took out a business card from his pocket and placed it on the table next to the telephone.

The moment they were outside her room, Peter took out his phone.   
“Julia, I need you and Emily at StarkMedical asap. - Yes, I know. - Okay, I'll wait here for you,” he quickly spoke into the gadget before turning to the nurse who'd watched him.   
“So, what kind of paperwork do I need to sign for my team to be present at the autopsy?”  
“I don't think, that-”  
“No, we'll be there. And we need each and every piece of medical information about the deceased woman. Also, I need all documents of other women from the facilities you've had here, in paper. bloodwork, pictures, interviews, everything.”  
She huffed for a moment, clearly not happy about receiving orders from someone like him, but then her gaze wandered to his name tag and she went, stating that she'd bring everything to the main office and that he should wait in front of it. 

Peter slowly walked over to have another look at the babies, which by now all slept peacefully, then went to the office to wait. He leaned against the wall, his mind going over the conversation again, then travelling to Bea.   
God, he missed her. So much.   
Taking out his phone, Peter checked for a text fro Wade, but sadly there was nothing. So he went to his pictures folder and swiped through snapshots of Bea. His favourite one was one Wade had taken some time during shopping, where he’d put massive glasses on Bea and tagged the picture “following Daddy’s footsteps?”.  
He smiled at the picture while slowly making his way back towards the office, when he collided with someone.   
“Oh, I'm sorry, Sir,” a raspy voice said and Peter quickly put his phone back into his pocket, almost having dropped it.   
“No, I'm sorry, I should've watched where I went,” he quickly said to a male nurse, dressed in green scrubs. He wore thick glasses and just nodded, excused himself again and then pulled a cart full of cleaning supplies along the hallway.  
Peter hurried to get to the door again so he wouldn't be in the way anymore. 

It didn’t take long for the first piles of folders to arrive and Peter was even allowed to use one of the nurse’s offices to go through them while he waited for his colleagues to arrive. He sat down and took another wonderful little gadget out of his briefcase – working with S. I. did have lots and lots of perks – to scan page after page and send it directly to the lab’s servers for the A. I. Dee to process them.   
He’d worked through five folders, archived all of the data at the lab and made some of his own notes in a table to compare when Emily and Julia arrived.   
Peter had exchanged a few mails with Tony Stark himself, who immediately gave him all the clearances, so Peter had moved the autopsy to the highest priority, so that his colleagues could start working. 

“Do you want to assist?” Julia asked as they flipped through the woman’s massive folder together. It was filled with so much medical detail and surgery documents that Peter could guess why her body had decided to shut down.   
“No, I’m not that kind of doctor. I’ll just continue sending all this to the lab and work some more until you guys are done. Then we can take a cab back together.”  
“What a lovely boss, ready to ride with the lower class,” Julia joked and Peter rolled his eyes.   
“Go get that autopsy done,” he just said and the women grinned at him, obviously in a better mood despite having to cut up a corpse now. Maybe that was just how biologists were, Peter mused, as he watched them go and then went back to his loaded desk. 

Only ten minutes into the next folder, Peter heard Julia call his name, her quick steps echoing on the hallway. A nurse shushed her, because the patients needed quiet, but she continued to run to the office.   
“Peter!”   
“What is it?” he asked, already expecting the worst judging from the look of horror on her face, and he was right.   
“Someone has checked the body out yesterday!” she exclaimed, her whole face flushing from running and maybe from the shock.   
“Yesterday?!” Peter asked, now shocked himself. Checked out would mean that the body was already on the way to the burial.   
But staff and all other reports said that she died this morning, not at night, not even at an ambiguous time like midnight, where terms could get mixed up.   
“What?! Who?” Peter demanded to know, already taking out his phone.  
“I don't know, yet, they're trying to find out.”  
Peter gestured for Julia to follow him to the main office. He already saw Dr. Yeun and a nurse frantically working, him clicking through files and her ruffling through the papers on the main desk, so she must’ve called them from the pathology floor.   
“Check your shift plan,” Peter ordered, the nurse nodding hastily. She took out a piece of paper, scanning the lines of a long timetable quickly.   
“Who signed the paper?” Peter demanded to know, looking from the doctor to the nurse and back. It was Dr. Yeun who found the answer.   
“Internal documents only … it says 'J.L.S' on it,” he said slowly, his brow furrowing.   
“That's Jackelyn's initials. She must've made a mistake,” the nurse supplied, seeming relieved until she turned and saw the doctor's grim face.   
“Which would be impossible, seeing that Jackelyn wasn't here yesterday. She called in sick before her shift and since it seemed to be a slow day I didn't call anyone else in to take her shift.”  
“So someone faked the signature?” Peter asked, now taking out his phone and dialing a number.  
“To steal the body?” Julia asked, still horrified.   
“But this can’t be, we’re working with the highest security clearance ...,” the doctor said, but Peter just shrugged, having dealt with Hydra infiltrating even a Shield base.   
“Then it was someone who’s already in. We’ll find out who. Until then, all and every correspondence will go through you, Dr. Yeun,” Peter ordered, silently glad that he was allowed to order those people around. At least starting now there wouldn’t be any covert operations anymore.   
When the connection was made, Peter gestured for Julia to follow him into the hallway and took the call. By now, Preston was at the lab, all by himself working on the data. When Peter and the biologists were back, Phillip would join then as well, so they could discuss their findings and possible consequences all together.   
“Preston, get into Medical's security feed, find out who came and went in the evening and night shifts. Mail me pictures, as detailed as you can. - Yeah, thanks.”  
“Peter, when someone stole a body, how in the world would they get it out of here without anyone noticing?”  
“I don’t know,” he replied truthfully, hoping there would be something suspicious on the security cameras. “Technically it was possible to use a big kind of box or something like it, at least in between phases of rigor mortis -”  
Julia stared at him when Peter interrupted himself, blinking a few times as his spider sense tingled all over, telling him he was on the right tracks.   
“Shit, I saw someone …,” Peter began and jumped back into the main office while calling the lab again with his cell. “Show me the list of your cleaning staff,” he demanded and saw the nurse flicking through folders when Preston took the call.   
“Preston, look for the cleaning staff – Dee, show him the schedules – and check who had something big enough for a body.”  
 _”So it wasn't the gardener,”_ the hacker mentioned and although Peter liked a good quip every now and then, he just wasn't in the mood.   
“Seems like it. Call me as soon as you got something.” Peter hadn't said if because by now he was fairly sure about what he'd seen.   
He felt stupid for not noticing.   
Of course the easiest way to get a dead body out of the building was in one of those cleaning trolleys, so the suspect had to be that guy Peter stumbled into a few hours ago.


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right on time, so crazy, right? ;) It's really weird, but I seem to be on top of things again, which means some more time for writing (yay!).  
> Today's chap is again super loaded, so I hope you have a good read :D  
> See you next week, enjoy <3

After he’d gone through half of the folders with Emily’s and Julia’s help – they’d each brought a scanner – the three of them went to the cafeteria for some tea.   
“Why would someone just steal a dead body? For what?” Emily mused, looking a bit more rested after she’d taken a day off. The dark shadows under her eyes were gone, at least.   
“No doubt they wanted to get rid of evidence,” Peter said as they sat down on an empty table, where he offered the sugar to his colleagues. Emily took one of the packets and slowly poured it into her cup before stirring.   
“Evidence of what? We already know these women were at the Hydra base,” Julia said, rubbing her temples. Peter suddenly felt sorry for dragging her and Emily into this, he could just easily have demanded one of the resident pathologists to do the autopsy and report to him directly, but he trusted his bio-team more.   
“I got to interview one of the women today, she said the dead woman was experimented on. She didn't know what they did to her, but it had to be something else than to all the other women.”  
Emily nodded slowly, her fingers tapping very lightly around the edge of the plastic cup.   
“So there could be chemical residue or something in her body. Maybe more microchips.”  
“I don't think it's chips. While she was here, she had surgery ten times, because of her severe injuries. Chips would have showed up during pre-surgery preparations.”  
“But not if they're organic,” Julia suddenly said, sitting up straighter when Peter looked at her. She furrowed her brow, clearly trying to memorize something.   
“I once worked with someone, a while ago, and he worked with a group of bio engineer students on organic microchips. They were supposedly made from cloned skin and tissue cells, all the way down to the lining of the cables and everything. There was still metal in there, but something like this might just be small enough to go unnoticed if it's in a good place.”  
“And you think stuff like that is on the market?” Peter asked, wondering if he'd ever read about something like this, but probably not.  
“Possibly. That was years ago, the team could have patented and sold it already. Legally, I mean.”  
“Yeah,” Peter mused, looking down at his tea.   
“You said she was operated on?” Emily asked, pursing her lips for a moment. “Did they have to take anything out? Maybe there were chips hidden.”  
“If there were, it’s long gone with the biohazard waste,” Peter sighed, already having clenched his teeth over that particular report in the documents. No removed tissue had been kept, because there was a notice to dispose of anything taken from these women asap to keep viruses at bay.   
“They didn’t even keep samples?” Julia asked incredulous, the spoon in her tea stilling.  
“Nothing.”  
“Peter,” Emily said, her brows furrowed as she fished for the teabag in her cup. “Usually samples have to be kept, so whoever stole the body, was probably here for a long time and has messed with the documents. Someone signed to keep no samples, knowing that those samples could turn up important clues to what exactly Hydra had been up to.”  
All three of them fell silent after that.   
“I think you're right. Let's hope Preston can find something,” Peter eventually replied, carefully fishing out his own teabag and taking a sip of his tea. 

They went back to the office and scanned the rest of the documents, even working on a chart together that compared all the women's data to each other. They put this together with the data they salvaged from the bases – not much, but maybe enough combined with everything else.   
Preston never called, so they made their way back to the lab after some more instructions to Dr. Yeun – for instance that he wasn't to talk to his staff about why he had to check all the documents personally now, just that he had to do it. 

 

“Did you find anything?”   
That was Peter's first question once the glass doors slid back and let them back into the lab. Emily and Julia went to the main table to put their latest data on the board.   
“Not much. I mean, there was cleaning personnel, but … well, every single one of them had one of those trolleys … Technically they're all suspects,” the hacker answered and showed a three pictures on his screen. It was screencaps from the security cameras, all of them depicting cleaning staff with their loaded trolleys.   
“Then we have this guy coming and going four times,” he added, showing another picture of a man in scrubs, obviously changing the bedding in all rooms and pushing carts of dirty laundry into a special maintainance elevator. Peter knew this one would just deliver the laundry to the hospital’s laundry service, but maybe that could be tampered with.   
“And those were all in the timeframe of the last nightshift?”   
“Yeah. Along with about twelve more workers, two surgeons and a guy from S.I. checking on the progress of the patients – he only got to the front desk and then back out.”  
“Okay, just cross him out, I highly doubt Stark would hide a dead body from us.”  
“I’m only mildly surprised that you don’t rule out him actually stealing a body.”  
“Because I don’t.”  
Peter saw the hacker grin as he deleted the last picture.   
“We can’t be sure if all the staff are safe, but cross out Dr. Yeun – him. Yeah, he wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t know about it, and he was tricked as well. Someone pretended to be one of the nurses who was sick that day, faking her signature and all.”  
“Do you know how the documents were made?”  
“All digital, all signed with the nurse’s ID, so someone must’ve stolen her password.”  
“Easy enough if you work at the place. Too many people stll keep a note with all their important passwords somewhere,” Preston replied.  
“For example someone who claims to clean the locker rooms...”  
“And uses the time to raid them for intel.”  
“I suppose we don’t have cameras in there?”  
“No, privacy and all, there is maybe an audio recording, but that won’t be much use when all you hear is a mop sloshing around in a water bucket every now and then. Could be our guy or girl, could also just be regular cleaning.”

“Wait, wait!” Phillip suddenly said, almost yelled, after he’d stared at their board in silence for minutes. He rushed over to Peter and Preston at the hacker’s desk, stared at the screens but couldn’t get much information from them.  
“Peter, you said the body was checked out yesterday.”  
“Yeah.”  
“But in your transcript of the interview a nurse said that this woman passed away just this morning.”  
“Right,” Peter said, slowly because now the gears in his head were turning as well. The day had been so packed with information that the interview was almost overshadowed by everything else. “Which means ...,” Peter eventually said, his eyes widening when he looked over at his profiler.   
“That someone could check out the body a day early because this person knew for a fact that the woman would die.”  
“Cleaning staff also has access to the woman’s rooms, right? Now I’m not a pro, but it might just take some tempering on an IV and that’s it.”  
“That could very well be it ... I saw her file. She’s had so many surgeries, her body was weak.”  
Phillip leaned forward, bracing his arms on the back of Preston’s chair.   
“We need to look earlier than when the shifts changed. Show me the full footage of the hallway cameras.”  
Peter watched as the hacker closed some windows, opening others and showing a video from last night.  
“It’s sped up three times to save memory space.”  
The three men watched anxiously as people flitted back and forth on the screen – Dr. Yeun, his colleague Dr. Ivers, or some of the nurses checking on the patients.   
Preston pointed to another screen.  
“Now the cleaning staff took over their regular shift.”

“Wait, who’s that?” Peter asked, pointing to the screen.   
“Don’t know ...” Preston muttered, pursing his lips when he ran a cross-reference check on all the other pictures. “He sure was careful to always keep his face turned away from the camera.”  
“He’s it. He’s too careful,” Phillip mentioned, staring at the screen.   
“There’s no video of him ... he knows where all the cameras were, even in the office, and always kept his face just out of reach.”  
“Then we’ll see who we can rule out,” Peter concluded, now sitting down next to Preston and typing into the second keyboard. He quickly called up the timetable for last night’s shift and compared the names and ID pictures with the screencaps Preston had taken.   
“Got it,” Preston muttered and began typing as well, taking the early morning shift and the cleaning staff into account. 

“Three remaining?” Phillip guessed from watching them, and Peter nodded.   
“But only one in cleaning.”  
“Cross-referencing his social security number and ID data he gave when he applied for the job,” Preston mentioned, working with the regular FBI and police data bases. Within a few seconds, they had their man.   
“All fake, good ones but fake,” the hacker concluded, “But we have a picture at least.”  
Peter sighed when he saw that it was the man he'd bumped into this morning. He hadn't even paid much attention to the man with his cleaning trolley, much too tied up in his thoughts and all the things happening around him and with his phone.

Peter's eyes widened when he thought about his phone. An ice-cold shudder ran over his back – he'd been openly looking at pictures of Bea, which the man no doubt saw when they bumped into each other.   
“Call Stark, tell him I'm on it!” Peter yelled and was out the door the next second, running down the hallway and pulling his phone from his pocket. He had Wade on speed dial and groaned when it rang a few times – nothing unusual when in a household with a toddler, but inconvenient.  
“Honey, are you home?” he asked, panting already when he took the stairs instead of the elevator, scanning the hallway just in case anybody was in hearing distance.   
_”Yeah, I'm just about to wake Bea up from her nap. What''s up?”_  
“I … need your help.”  
 _”My help? Shit.”_  
“Yeah.”  
 _“ What is it?”_ Wade asked, his voice grim and serious. Peter heard rustling in the background, so the older man was probably looking for his suit right now.   
“Someone stole a dead body from StarkMedical before the autopsy, possibly to hide evidence of some other experiments. Possibly killed that woman in the first place. And ... he saw a photo of Bea on my phone – I didn’t know it was him at that time.”  
 _”Well, fuck. I’ll get her to May’s when she wakes up and I will shoot that fucker when I find him.”_  
“Not in the head, though, we need him for interrogations.”  
 _”Dick shot it is, then,”_ Wade answered, sounding rather cheerful and Peter smirked.  
“I’ll pick you up at May’s, and I’ll call some security on the way.”  
 _”Sweetie, don’t text and web.”_  
”Very funny. See you in a bit.”  
 _”Alright, see you. Love ya.”_  
“Love you, too.”

Peter had reached the locker rooms and quickly yanked his backpack out of his locker, then ran to the nearest restrooms. He locked the stall and put on the Spiderman suit, then his normal clothes on top.  
With the backpack slung over his shoulder Peter took the stairs to the helipad.  
 _”Mr.. Parker, shall I alert Mr. Stark?”_ Jarvis’s smooth voice asked from the speakers as soon as Peter stepped outside the heavy steel door. Even out here in the brisk wind he could hear the A.I. loud and clear. Must be some really good speakers installed in the walls.   
“No, thanks. I got this. But if you could send a containment team to an adress I’m gonna give later?” Peter asked and hurried out of his clothes, feeling the air colder on his skin underneath the suit. The mask slid over his head easily and he stuffed the clothes into his backpack that he then webbed to the outside wall of the Tower. Sometime later he’d pick them up again.  
“Of course, Sir. May I add a hearse?”

Jarvis knew about everything, of course, since their lab A.I. Dee worked under him.   
“That’s be great. See you tomorrow!” Peter yelled and jumped off the building to shoot a web to another skyscraper and pull himself high above the city. 

 

People were shouting his name in surprise – he hadn’t been around, lately – and took photos as he swung by. It almost felt like back in the day when all Peter would care about was the assorted villain here and there.  
All that seemed so unimportant now, with the threat of Hydra lurking in every dark corner.   
Peter watched from afar, sitting in a tree when Wade dropped Bea off at aunt May’s. At the far end of the street, a big family van waited, looking like there would be some kids hopping in anytime now, but it was actually Stark’s security service.   
Peter was sure there were also some S.I. personnel – definitely not SHIELD – waiting downtown for Jarvis to get them coordinates. 

Peter smiled at seeing Bea, longing to just go over and hug her real quick. She had seen his costume, but Peter guessed that she’d be scared of his mask because she was scared of Wade’s. She probably also didn’t put two and two together yet that her Daddy is Spiderman. 

After a while Wade left the house again, driving off with the car but leaving it around the block in a parking lot. He got out, already in his Deadpool gear with the mask on and everything, and dashed around the next corner, towards a higher building. Peter caught onto Wade’s thoughts and followed to the roof of the building. 

“My oh my, Spidey, it's an honor,” Wade greeted him there, a big grin visible under his mask and a dark duffel bag stashed in a corner of the roof. They hugged briefly and of course Wade's hands landed on Peter's butt. “It's been so long...,” he commented with a wistful sigh.   
“Yeah, indeed,” Peter mumbled, but pushed Wade away gently – they really didn't need any paparazzi pictures of Deadpool and Spidey making out. “So, we need to find a dead body.”  
“And the guy who took it.”  
“Where could you go with a dead body, though? A morgue or graveyard would be very obvious ... and dumping it somewhere would risk people finding it ... eventually,” Peter mused, pacing back and forth on the roof until Wade’s gloved hand closed around his wrist.   
“Say no more, I know just the place,” Wade said, nodding to himself and then gesturing for Peter to turn around. “Gimme a ride, I'll be your Siri.”  
Under his mask, Peter smirked. It’s been even longer since Wade and him were out like this, fighting and investigating together.   
“Giddy up,” he said and Wade laughed loudly, hopping onto Peter’s back. He didn’t hold any of his weight back, but Peter didn’t mind, effortlessly catching the older man’s thighs around his hips.   
“Are you groping me?” Wade hummed into Peter’s ear when he stepped up to the edge of the building. The younger man gave a playful squeeze to Wade’s thighs which Wade responded to with both hands on Peter’s pecs.   
“Nice,” the Merc hummed when they swung high over the city to take their course. 

 

“This one, to the left,” Wade said after about half an hour, steering them to an old brick building in the middle of a street.   
“A butcher's, really? Isn't that clichee?” Peter asked and swung them high up so they could fly far enough. He landed silently directly on the roof.   
“Well, it’s so clichee that you wouldn’t expect anyone in their right mind to use it. But it is in fact the best place to store a dead body to hold for ransom. And the butcher doesn’t take that much bribe money, so it’s kind of a good deal,” Wade explained, checking his guns and testing his katanas, which slid out of their sheaths easily.   
“Buy one get one free,” Peter quipped, his expression grim underneath the mask. He gestured to the backyard and quickly picked Wade up bridal style before jumping down.   
“Well, that’s the way to treat your spouse!” Wade praised, but Peter had to hush him.   
“Quiet, we don’t know who’s in there!”  
“Probably nobody, since the place is so far off. Lemme pick that lock and get ready,” Wade said, kneeling in front of the back door. Peter looked around, ready to web anybody up, but Wade did quick work of the lock and pulled him into the butcher shop.   
“I hate to ask, but which way to the cooler?”  
“How would I know? I never needed their services. But I know the sausages are the bomb.”  
“Oh,” Peter just said, a bit embarrassed because he’d assumed just that.   
“My sweetheart, I un-alive people, quick service, supreme quality, no need for storage.”  
“Sorry.”  
“No biggie, just lemme touch your butt later.”  
“I will,” Peter giggled, glad that the Merc didn’t take offense in his assumption. They searched the place and Peter quietly stuck a very small microphone underneath the cash register – newest S.I. model, not bigger than a sticker.

Wade went around the cooler towards another door, but he shook his head quickly at Peter.   
“Just storage.”  
Peter waited for Wade to join him at the next door, right behind the counter. As soon as Wade had a clear shot through the doorframe, Peter jumped up and entered the door from the ceiling.   
“God, I love when you get all spidery.”

Peter ignored that comment for now, used to Wade’s constant talking during missions.  
Guns drawn, Wade walked into the back room and they looked around, but everything seemed normal.   
“There,” Peter hissed and pointed to a door with a small round window made of thick glass. A panel next to the door showed low temperatures and another sign underneath said that the door had to be locked every evening. Wade nodded, taking a second gun out of a holster on his thigh, approaching the door with both hands stretched out.   
Peter didn’t need to ask whether or not Wade actually suspected someone to be in there, because his spider-sense went crazy when he as much as looked at the door. He shot a web before Wade had to reach for the doorknob, and nodded to the Merc to let him know he was ready.   
Wade nodded back, and Peter pulled on the webs, which pulled down the thick metal bar that was the doorhandle. The hydraulics in the heavy door hisses when it opened, releasing a gust of cold air that formed little white clouds in the air.  
“I’m going in,” Wade announced quietly, no doubt to also intimidate anybody alive waiting inside.   
Which didn’t quite work that way.  
Wade hadn’t even gotten one step into the cold room when a dark figure suddenly dashed out, making Wade yell in surprise and raise his gun. While Peter shot webs at the man’s feet, the Merc punched him into the head with the butt of the pistol. A knife glistened between Wade and the attacker briefly, then it got lodged into Wade’s stomach with a thud.   
The Merc grunted and cursed loudly, pulling the knife out again when Peter let himself fall down and onto the man’s back. He webbed his hands to the ground when they tumbled down, then tried to get all his weight onto the attacker’s back.   
“Got it!” Wade said before Peter even needed to ask, pulling a roll of thin wire from one of his pouches. From the rings at every end Peter could guess that this was normally used to strangle people, but now Wade quickly tied it around the man’s leg, all the way up to his knees. The thin wire had to cut into the flesh with every move, quickly rendering the man immobile.   
“You wanna tell us some nice things now or should I have my fun with you first?” Wade asked, his voice devoid of any amusement now. He was angry and patted the man down, reaching into his pockets to find a phone. Peter took a glance into the room, but it was empty save from a few halved pigs and big chunks of meat dangling from hooks.   
And the distinct form of a bodybag lying in the farthest corner on a metal table.   
“She’s here,” Peter said quietly, and Wade nodded, gesturing for Peter to go ahead. Which meant that he should tell the S.I. people their coordinates.   
“So, let’s see what we got,” Wade said and went through the man’s phone, flicking through some data. Peter just pushed one hidden button on one of his webshooters and his location was sent to the teams waiting covertly all around. In a few minutes, they’d be there to take the woman back to the hospital, where the security measures were upped by now.   
“Uh, Spidey.”  
Peter turned to Wade at his serious, quiet call. He went over to look at the phone in Wade’s gloved hands and his blood went ice cold when he saw what was on the little screen. 

It was a photo of Peter’s hand holding his phone, back at the hospital, when he’d looked at pictures of Bea. The photo was part of a conversation with a hidden number where the man told someone:   
_“Interested? One of them?”_  
The hidden number had replied a few hours ago.   
_“One of them. Location?”_  
The coordinates to the hospital, date and time followed, along with a picture of Peter, taken when he was at the cafeteria with his colleagues.   
_“His phone,”_ the caption just said and Peter felt pure rage bubble up inside him when he read the reply.   
_“Observe. Find the girl, waste no time. Take her.”_

So they were still looking for Bea. And they somehow knew what she looked like, probably because of the DNA data they still had of her. Would be easy to get an image from that. 

“Deadpool, I think I might help our friends find the way. Can I leave you in charge for a moment?” Peter said quietly, taking the phone from Wade’s hands, which immediately balled into fists.   
“Of course, Spidey. I can absolutely handle this,” Wade said sugary sweet, reaching into one of his pouches as soon as Peter turned.   
When he was at the back door, ready to jump to the roof and look for the backup to arrive, Peter heard the telltale click of a metal against metal – probably an expandable baton being opened.   
He jumped up and left Wade and the attacker alone, satisfied with knowing the man would know some real pain in a moment. 

Peter was by no means a violent person, but even imagining this guy getting his hands on Bea made him so angry he almost wished he could weld the baton for a while. 

Within an hour, the small street was teeming with S.I. personnel, some SHIELD and police forces – word had finally gotten around that there was something illegal happening at the butcher’s. The place was shut down and investigations began to find out who’d been dealing with the man. S.I. left SHIELD in charge of the place so that they could leave early with the body without anybody asking questions.   
Peter oversaw the situation as Spiderman, staying close and steering the pedestrians and cars around the place, while Wade stood by the door and looked scary enough so no one would take pictures of the bodybag.

As soon as the black van left with the body, Peter briefly talked to Preston on the phone.   
“Are you sure?” he asked while gesturing for Wade to follow him. The Merc shot a glance back into the shop and then walked slowly towards the alleyway Peter was standing at.   
There was the occasional photo being taken of Spidey, but people soon hurried on their way when Deadpool stood next to him.   
“Yeah, okay. See you tomorrow,” Peter said and ended the call with a smile, barely visible through his mask.   
“What’s the smirkin’ about?” Wade asked and leaned in, but remembered about their masks soon enough. There was no way they could lift them now, but the Merc wanted to sneak a kiss really badly.   
“Preston will take care of the phone and send some viruses to anyone who received messages from it, so all data gets lost. Also, we can go home now. Julia and Emily will take care of the autopsy and then take tomorrow off. So I get today off and come in tomorrow,” Peter explained and Wade narrowed his eyes a bit.   
“You said you’d take tomorrow off,” Wade mentioned, pulling Peter in close just so he could web them to the roof of the building and then further away.   
“I know, but with the autopsy running, we might need to act soon. I can’t leave now,” Peter said while they were flying over the city.   
Just for all the eyes on them, Peter takes a detour, webbing them here and there, while Wade just enjoys the ride. Eventually they arrive back at the roof next to the parking lot, and Wade reveals the contents of the bag he threw onto the roof when they met. There was a change of clothes for both of them inside, shoes, underwear and everything. Peter laughed but thanked his lover for thinking of this.  
“What did you tell May?” Peter asked when he took out a pair of pants for himself. He contemplated putting them over his costume, but decided it’d be too uncomfortable and took off the spandex.   
“That I had some work thing to take care of – we’ll just say you texted me that you were around and I picked you up,” Wade replied, shimmying out of his Deadpool costume to get into his usual jeans and hoodie attire. He wrapped a bandana over his head before pulling up the hood, then putting on soft black gloves.   
“Good,” Peter answered, slipped into a shirt and his jacket. They stuffed both their costumes into the bag, then left the building like normal people via the stairs. The bag went into the farthest corner of their car's trunk and they drove the few minutes to aunt May's – merely for show.  
“Did she say anything about your eyes?” Peter asked, since they were still blue. By now they were both convinced that they'd stay this way.   
“No, I don't think she's noticed. But I haven't exactly stared at her … I didn't know what to answer if she asked.”  
Peter nodded, unsure himself, but a smile tugged at his lips when his old home came into view. 

“Daddy!” Bea shouted happily as soon as they were through the door and came running towards them from the kitchen. She wore an apron over her dress that was much too big for her, rolled up a bit around her hips.   
“Look at that, who's the little baking helper?” Wade asked as Bea and Peter hugged, the younger man kissing her cheeks.   
“Me!” she said and pointed to the kitchen, where aunt May was just now putting something in the oven. 

“What did you guys make?” Peter asked when they all sat down in the kitchen a moment later. Wade began taking out cups and poured them all some of the fresh, steaming tea that sat in a pitcher on the table.   
“We made cookies for later. Pecan and white chocolate,” aunt May supplied and Bea nodded, stretching her hands out for Peter's cup.  
“Wait, it's hot,” Peter said quietly and blew on the tea, then held the cup to Bea's lips carefully. He watched her take a few sips of his tea, a smile spreading on his lips because she was just the cutest and he got to spend some time with her.

Of course they stayed for dinner that evening, and Peter invited aunt May over for Sunday. Even though Peter wanted to give her a break from cooking, she insisted on bringing dessert.  
“We make?” Bea asked and May smiled.   
“Well, maybe I’ll bring cookie dough and we make some at home?” she asked and Bea agreed happily. If it made their little girl that happy, all three of them would be okay with eating cookies for dessert for the rest of their lives.  
When it was time to get going, Bea pulled Peter towards the door where their shoes were standing. He helped her put her little shoes on, while she told him she went shopping for those with Papa.   
Then Bea pointed to Wade's new red sneakers, showing off her choice.  
“Oh, those are super pretty, good job picking shoes for Papa,” Peter praised.  
“Papa, shooo,” she said, drawing out the last syllable because it was probably hard for her to try and put an s at the end.   
“Yeah, they look so good on him,” Peter said as he closed the velcro on her left shoe.  
“Aw, you guys flatter me,” Wade mentioned from the kitchen, packing up their leftovers – of course aunt May always made enough for leftovers.   
“Shoe, stinky,” Bea said matter of factly and Peter burst out laughing. He heard May laugh from the kitchen.  
“What the heck?! No they're not!” Wade argued.  
“Stinky.”  
“No, they're not stinky, I swear!” Wade insisted, but even he had to laugh. “Where did you even learn that word?”  
“Is stinky.”  
“Pfff, your diapers are stinky, too. There, I said it,” Wade said, making Peter laugh even harder. Bea didn’t quite seem to understand, but she laughed as well.   
”You cheeky baby, just you wait,” Wade threatened with a grin, making her laugh again. 

 

When they got home they played with Bea and then Wade took care of the household while Peter took a bath with Bea. She babbled almost non-stop during their bath, telling him every detail of her day – or so he guessed, since there weren’t many real words yet.   
Wade came to wrap them both in towels and even towelled Peter’s hair because Bea said so. She was satisfied when his hair stuck up in all directions just like hers, and Peter lifted her onto the sink so they could both brush their hair. 

Later Peter read Bea and Wade a story from her ever growing book collection. He took his time showing her the pictures and making her laugh, while she lay snuggled up in Wade’s arms. Peter couldn’t stop smiling when he got to hold Bea when they sang her a song, then put her into the crib.   
“Goodnight, my love. Sweet dreams, I love you,” Peter whispered, leaning over the edge of the crib to give Bea a kiss.   
She was asleep pretty quickly, her eyes already closed when Peter checked on her on the baby monitor. 

“She's so cute, look,” Peter said quietly on the way to the bedroom, and showed Wade the monitor. He smirked when he saw their little girl, stretched out in her crib.   
“We could try and take off the front part soon. Make it a big girl bed.”  
“Man, time flies,” Peter sighed when Wade closed the door behind them. “She's one and a half years already, can you believe it?”  
“Nah, not a moment. I guess to me she's always gonna be that tiny baby you brought home,” Wade giggled, setting two bottles of water on Peter's night stand. 

“Today …,” Peter began, his voice serious now. “Today I thought I'd punch that guy. Not hold back, just … hurt him.”  
Wade turned, looked at him a long moment. Then smiled, gentle and loving.   
“No, sweetie. That's what you got me for.”  
Peter smiled in return, but he still felt that rage deep inside him.   
“But I wanted to. You know … it sounds stupid, but … I think I changed ever since we had Bea.”  
“We both did. I didn't kill the guy.”  
“And I wanted to.”  
Wade grinned now, sitting on the edge of the bed.   
“Maybe she's just making us more alike?”  
“She definitely brought us closer together.”  
“Hey, we were close before!” Wade reminded, patting the bed next to him after he'd laid down. Peter smirked and began taking off his clothes, aware that his lover watched.   
“Of course. But now ... don’t you think it’s so much more?”  
“It’s everything,” Wade agreed after a quiet moment, a relaxed smile curving his lips.


	44. Chapter 44

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late chapter is late, whoops ;) Have a nice Friday and weekend, you sweet people, I'm heading to bed now <3

Peter sighed when he noticed the bed shifting around him, just at the farthest corners of his mind. He wasn't ready to get up now so he just drifted back to sleep, continuing his dream about something he was working on.   
The solution was so close, he just needed one more experiment and then-

Peter's eyes snapped open and he gasped when he felt Wade swallow him down. There was light streaming into the room through the bedroom curtains, so it had to be morning already. Peter wanted to take a look at the clock, but he could barely think.  
His Merc was hidden under the blanket, his head bobbing up and down rhythmically and for a few seconds Peter's body froze, startled by the sudden rush of lust.   
When his brain finally caught up on what was happening, he gasped and pushed the breath out again with a moan, his head falling back into the pillow.   
“Quiet,” Wade mumbled, having pulled off just enough to speak, only to dive right down again. Peter whimpered and forced his hand to move over his mouth, muffling his moans.   
His legs trembled and he sighed when Wade lifted them both on his shoulders, the blanket beginning to slide off their bodies.   
Within seconds he was so close it almost hurt. With his body still relaxed and his mind a bit fuzzy from having just woken up, Peter thrashed in the sheets, panting around the fingers between his teeth.   
He wanted to warn Wade that he was about to come, opened his mouth to do so, when Wade moved and roughly pushed a finger inside Peter’s body. The younger man gasped, his back arching off the bed, unable to muffle his scream.   
With his free hand, Wade reached around and pushed the palm of his hand on Peter’s mouth. A thrill went through Peter’s body and he clung to Wade’s arm helplessly, beginning to move his hips against the Merc’s fingers. Of course he could easily break free, but Peter didn’t want to.  
Wade set a nice steady rhythm, his fingers moving in and out of Peter’s body, ever thrust a bit deeper than the last. Grunting underneath Wade’s hand, Peter squeezed his eyes shut, shaking each time Wade’s fingers brushed his prostate.   
Eventually Peter had to move his head to the side and gasp for some air, and he sighed desperately when Wade’s hand wandered down his throat to his chest, rough fingers pinching his nipples. 

With his mind almost short circuiting from the lust pulsing through every inch of his body, Peter reached out with both hands, giving up on trying to muffle his moans. He placed his hands onto Wade's, the other hand went onto the older man's head, cradling it as softly as Peter managed.   
He took a few deep, gasping breaths, his body arching and bowing in sync with Wade's hand and mouth, then his orgasm hit Peter so fast and so hard he could only hang on and moan. 

Peter was sure they were way too loud, but he couldn’t seem to care at that moment. Wade hummed against his skin, kissing his way up here and there, teasing the skin with his tongue.  
“You up for somethin’ quick?” Wade asked, out of breath and with his voice so dark and so loving. Peter smirked, nodding when he slung his arms around Wade’s shoulder.   
Lately, it was all about being quick, that was just the reality of parenthood, but that didn’t mean they didn’t enjoy it. In fact, Peter found himself very much enjoying when Wade pulled his legs apart, then fumbling with a condom – quick also meant quick cleanup.   
“You good?” Wade asked, and Peter watched with heavy lids as Wade stroked himself a few times with lubed fingers.   
“Yeah, go ahead,” Peter said quietly, lifting his knees a bit to give his lover better access. He was barely prepped, and it would be a stretch, but Peter was sure it wouldn’t hurt. Wade wouldn’t suggest it if it would.   
Wade lined up and Peter breathed out slowly, relaxing his body and leaning back into the pillow, ready for more of the lust that he could enjoy this morning. 

Or course, which always seemed to be their luck, Bea chose right this moment to wake up and call for them. They didn’t hear her from her room, but via the monitor. She knew they could hear her this way and called for Daddy, then for Papa, then just shouted good morning to both of them.   
“Oh no, no, no,” Wade whined, sounding more like the child now than Bea. Peter let his head drop back with a laugh, rubbing his face with both hands. Because Wade didn’t move, Peter gently pushed him back into a sitting position with his foot against the older man’s chest.   
“Aw, c’mon, not even a quicky for me?” Wade asked, still stroking himself with one hand while caressing Peter’s naked foot with the other.   
“No, I guess not. I’ll go take care of Bea. You okay with ... taking care of yourself?”  
Wade groaned, falling back into the bed when Peter got up.  
”Imma have to, don’t I? Nobody wants Papa to die of blue balls,” he whined and Peter laughed. He did feel sorry for his lover, but one of them would have to take care of Bea.   
“Go ahead, take your time, see you at breakfast,” Peter said and Wade groaned again, still not okay with the interruption. He turned onto his back and pulled one of the bedside drawers open with one hand.   
”Yeah, see you there if I don’t die first.”  
“You can’t die,” Peter said and opened the door to the hallway.   
“Blue balls are my cryptonite!”  
Peter laughed as he went into the bathroom first to grab a robe and wash his hands and face real quick, before heading to the nursery.

Bea stood up in her crib when Peter opened the door to her room, her hair sticking up in all directions.   
“Good morning, my love,” he greeted, so happy with the perspective to spend a relaxed morning with her.   
“Morning!” she said happily, even pronouncing it right. It occurred to Peter that she’d learned so much in the past weeks that he probably had yet to see in person. It was bittersweet, but Peter wouldn’t let that spoil their time together. 

Peter heard the shower run and carried Bea over to her changing table. He gave her a fresh diaper and picked an outfit for her day ahead. He grinned when he put it on Bea, because Wade would absolutely love it.   
“Papa!” Bea shouted when Peter lifted her off the table. She wandered off into the hallway, chipper as ever, with her hair still a mess from sleeping.   
Peter took care of a bit of clean up around the changing area and heard Wade open the bathroom door.   
“There’s my cutie pie! Good morning!”  
“Morning!” Bea replied, making Peter and Wade both laugh with her sweet, happy voice.   
Peter just saw Wade lifting Bea up when he came into the hallway.   
“Did you pick that outfit? God, I love it!” Wade cooed and kissed Bea’s cheeks until she laughed.   
“Yeah, I thought so,” Peter replied, ushering them both into the kitchen for some breakfast. 

Bea wore a dress aunt May had bought for her, orange-red with black polka dots, and matching black tights. Wade probably had a bow or something for her hair ready to match the outfit, Peter mused, while preparing a bottle of milk.   
“Bea, what do you want for breakfast?” Wade asked and she looked over, just about to pull her chair out.   
“Egg!” Bea said brushing a stand of hair from her forehead and then turning back to pull her chair from under the table. She patiently waited for Peter to set it up, then let herself be lifted into the seat. Peter strapped her in and made sure she couldn’t reach the table with her feet – he’d read online that some kids seriously injured themselves when they kicked against the table and then pushed the chair so it fell backwards.   
“Then my little princess will have egg. You okay with egg, too, Petey?”  
“Very okay. Do you have something matching for her hair?” Peter asked, pulling the brush from his jeans pocket that he’d brought from Bea’s room. He began brushing out her blonde hair, enjoying the silky feeling in his hands.   
“Yeah, in that pink box with the bow that’s above her changing table – I’ll get it,” he quickly added when Peter wanted to turn from the table. Wade returned only a moment later with a bow on a clip. It was made of fabric and matched the orange-red of the dress.  
“Thanks.”  
“You good with doing her hair?” Wade asked with the hint of a cheeky smile, because they both knew that it was actually Wade who was better at toddler fashion.   
“Don’t you tease me. Go and make breakfast.”  
“Oh, my husband ordering me around, how it makes my heart flutter. As you wish, my dear!”  
Peter grinned, telling Bea that Papa’s being funny. She repeated funny and giggled, but held still when Peter did her hair. He opted for something very simple, just twisting a strand of hair out of her face and to the side, pinning it with the bow. 

They had a nice relaxed breakfast together and Peter really contemplated just staying at home, but then he remembered the dead body and all his responsibilities. It made him sad, but he forced himself to get up from the table and grab his briefcase.   
Bea watched him pack some notes, his laptop and the coffee Wade made him.   
“Daddy,” she said and he looked up. “Play?”  
Peter felt a tug in his heart, but smiled.  
“Yeah, you can play with Papa.”  
“Daddy work?”  
“Yes, I’ll go to work now,” Peter said, hoping that he didn’t sound too sad. Bea nodded, looked down for a moment and then grabbed her milk bottle to drink. Peter was glad she didn’t cry, and hurried to get ready so she’d be distracted soon.

When he left, Wade had already put Bea in her play area and told her they’d get some pretty flowers for aunt May’s garden that day. She seemed happy about it and told Wade she wanted pink flowers. Peter smiled when he quietly closed the door, his smile quickly falling once he was outside.   
He missed Bea.   
So much.  
But this was so much bigger than just his feelings as a parent. Bea was happy with Wade, and safe. Other children weren’t, and it was Peter’s job to make sure they got a chance at a life like Bea’s. 

 

After having taken care of the household chores, Wade flicked through the ads on the housing market, but nothing really sparked his interest. The houses were all too small for his liking and for that also too expensive.   
If he bought a house, he wanted it to be _the_ house.  
And, not that he planned on anything, but Wade thought it would be nice to have two or three spare rooms for more kids. He didn’t talk to Peter about that – mainly because the younger man was stressed enough without thinking about his DNA still being in Hydra’s hands – but Wade found himself thinking more and more about kids and how happy he’d be if they had another one. Or two. Maybe three.  
Shaking his head at his errand thoughts – having more kids wasn’t exactly a happy occasion for them – Wade shut off the laptop again.   
“All done?” Bea asked, sitting at her little table and drawing on a few sheets of colored paper with her crayons.   
“Yup, all done. No good houses. You wanna help me do the laundry?” he asked, smiling when Bea agreed. They went to get the laundry baskets and Wade let Bea sort all black clothes into one bin and put everything else into another bin. She stuffed the machine, which took a bit longer, but whatever. Wade was glad she had fun, so he waited patiently and showed her which button to push when the machine was loaded.   
“This one?” Bea asked, pointing to the second laundry basket.   
“This one has to wait. When the machine beeps, we can change it,” Wade explained, showing Bea the countdown on the washing machine. She nodded, then told the basket it had to be patient, which was pretty damn cute. 

She went back to drawing then while Wade prepared her bag for the day out. He packed some snacks and tea for Bea, a change of clothes – you never know – and some toys and diapers.  
“All done, Papa!” Bea said and waved him over to her little table when Wade came back into the living room.   
“Awesome, can we pick one of your pictures to give to aunt May?”  
“Yeah!”   
They looked at Bea’s artwork – lots and lots of crayon lines and some stamped hearts and flowers – and picked one to take with them. 

Wade picked up aunt May at her house and she was happy to sit in the back with Bea. They drove to a big hardware store and Wade sat Bea down on the cart, which she loved, since it was just one big rolling platform.  
“Fun, Papa, fun!”  
“It is, huh? Should we pick some herbs for our kitchen? And a nice flower for the living room?” Wade asked, thinking that he might just about remember to water a few things every now and then. He’d never been good with plants, but then again he’d also never had a kid and he was pretty good at raising Bea. At least he thought so.   
“Yes!” Bea lisped, seemed so happy about the idea. Wade smiled, thinking that Peter would also like the herbs, since it would get Bea to eat more greens. Wade mused that if they got a big house, they could also have a garden in the back and plant some vegetables.

They chose some big planting pots for aunt May’s backyard and then got the soil. Bea sat on the three big bags of soil happily, and even though Wade was a little freaked she could slip off and fall, he didn’t want to spoil the fun for her. But he was ready to reach down and stop her fall if he had to.  
After that they moved to the smaller pots, choosing some nice ones for both their homes and loading up the cart. When it came to picking out the plants in a big market hall, Wade had Bea walk so she wouldn’t sit between the plants. She held aunt May’s hand and happily talked with them about the flowers.  
“So which one should we take for the living room, Bea?” Wade asked when they were almost done. He’d even picked a rectangular pot with herbs for the kitchen that’d look nice on the cooking island.   
“Pink, pink!” she said, of course. Wade grinned, because he’d be the last person on earth to deny some pink in his life. He showed Bea some fitting flowers and eventually – after _a lot_ of back and forth – she decided on a medium sized round plant with lots of tiny pink flowers. 

“Daddy! Show, pick.”  
“A picture?”  
“Yeah!”  
“Alright, then say cheese,” Wade said and took out his phone. He snapped a picture of Bea with all the flowers behind her and let the little one put some hearts and a bow on the frame of the picture, because of course she wanted to decorate.   
“All done, now we wait for Daddy to answer.”  
“Yeah,” she answered happily. It was quite astonishing how fast she understood the whole thing with taking and sending pictures. She could even do it herself – she’d sent a picture of her chin from Peter’s phone to Wade’s one evening. Wade had kept the picture, titled it “baby’s first selfie” just because it was so cute. 

After loading everything up in the car, Wade, aunt May and Bea went to get some lunch together. Wade loved spending time with their aunt – she was okay with him calling her his aunt, she’s accepted him into the family the moment Peter had introduced them.   
“Wade ...,” May began when they sat at the table. Wade looked up while he was feeding Bea a spoonful of fried rice. “How is Peter doing? And don’t tell me fine, because I got the feeling he’s not.”  
“He’s not,” Wade agreed, quickly eating a spoonful himself while Bea was chewing.  
“Is it about his work? He’s doing a lot, isn’t ne?” May asked, her brows furrowing in concern. Wade hated to see her like this, worried for Peter, but he also couldn’t lie to her.   
”Yeah, but it’s ... it’s important stuff. I’m ... hoping that ... his project-thingy is over soon, though. He misses Bea,” Wade said honestly, his voice quiet. He fed Bea another spoonful and then took one more for himself.   
”I hope he’s not overworking himself. I wonder ... he’s been so happy to work with that big company, but maybe it wasn’t the right decision? Maybe it was too much too soon?”  
“It’s a big chance for him,” Wade mentioned, but he had to agree with aunt May. “But you’re not wrong. It’s getting more and more that he has to handle ... but I think he can do it. When he’s done, though, he’s gotta stay home a bit with us. Bea’s only little for so long.”  
May smiled, watched as Wade fed Bea again.   
“Wade, you’re great. I just need you to know that right now, that you’re really a great father and husband. I’m glad Peter has you at his side.”  
Wade looked at his food for a long moment, busying himself with filling the spoon again for Bea. He shrugged, feeling a bit weird for taking praise like this.   
“Well, I do my best ... I just hope it’s good enough.”  
May reached over and place her hand on Wade’s for a moment, squeezing gently to get his attention. Now he really had to look up to her, seeing her gentle smile.   
“It is. Don’t doubt yourself. You’re doing a great job.”  
Wade nodded quickly, looked down again because he really couldn’t take being the centre of attention any longer. He fed Bea again and wondered how such a tiny person could finish off half of their massive portion. 

 

Since they had to unload most of their haul at aunt May's house, Wade put Bea down for a nap in her little room there. While she slept like a log, completely tired out from the exciting day at the hardware store, the adults went on to get all the plant into the pots and distribute them.   
Two of the big pots went left and right of the front door, the rest went to the backyard where Wade was even starting to lay out some new stone trims for new gardening beds.   
“That'll look so great,” Wade said when he carried the last load of stones through the yard. “Bea will love to help you out.”  
“I sure hope so. Peter quite liked it when he was younger,” she mentioned, sitting on a cushion on the back porch where she filled the pots with soil.   
“Were we total bad people because we never did your garden until now?” Wade asked curiously, because although he had noticed the old, dark grey stones and the dried out beds before, Peter and May never mentioned it, so he figured they weren't into gardening that much.   
“No, my boy. It was just too much work for me after Ben passed away. He was the one fond of the plants.”  
Wade really hoped he hadn't brought up any painful memory, but when he looked over his shoulder May just smiled at one of the little rose plants she set into a pot.   
“So … what made you change your mind now?” he wanted to know, kneeling back down to finish the last trim.   
“Bea. I guess you've noticed already, but when there's a little child around, with the way they discover the world … everything's suddenly fun again. Just for myself I wouldn't have started gardening again, but when I think of showing her to water the plants or maybe harvest some beans and tomatoes … it just makes me so happy.”  
Wade noticed he had a huge grin on his face while May talked, knowing exactly what she meant. He couldn't wait for them to plant some vegetables so she could see how things grew. 

When Bea woke up they had a snack together and went to a nearby playground before it was time for Wade and Bea to get home.   
But as soon as they were on the road, Bea went quiet. She looked out of the window for a while and Wade wondered if she was still tired or if something else was up. He was glad and worried at the same time when she spoke up.  
“Papa,” Bea’s voice came small and tired from the backseat.   
”What is it, Bea-bear?” he asked, looking into the mirror to see her. Wade frowned when he saw her heavily lidded eyes and pale skin.   
“Owie,” she just said, sighing through her next breath.   
“What’s owie, baby?” Wade wanted to know, accelerating the car as much as he could so they would be home faster. He suspected the worst and when Bea didn’t answer he looked into the mirror again.   
“Tummy owie,” she said quietly, hiccuping and then starting to cry. Wade sighed, not sure if it was better for him to keep driving or to stop the car. In the end, he figured she was just car sick, since food never really was an issue with her and they’d eaten the very same thing, so as long as he was fine, it couldn’t be that.  
“We’re almost home, baby, just hold on a bit, okay? C’mon, let’s sing a song together,” Wade tried to distract her, starting to sing about the wheels on the bus with her. He kept it slow and listened to her weak little voice behind him.   
His heart ached because he couldn’t just scoop her up in his arms and make it all better, but when they didn’t get home soon she’d be throwing up all over-  
And of course during the thirst verse about those damn wipers on the damn bus Bea threw up all over herself and her seat. She cried louder then, before throwing up a second time a minute later.   
Wade clenched his teeth, barely keeping from cursing, but thankfully they were home a mooment later. They ran a bit late, so Wade knew Peter would be home before he could get rid of all the puke, which was just great.   
On top of everything that happened, Peter would have to come home to a crying smelly baby and a smelly car. 

Wade jumped out of the car the moment it stopped, opening Bea’s door. Finding out that she had in fact managed to get womit on the floor of the car. Great.   
“It’s gonna be okay, baby, Papa will make it all better,” he promised, surprised at himself because maybe a few years back such a stressful situation might have caused him to freak out and yell. But right now his only concern was Bea’s wellbeing – and the car somewhere after that – so he unbuckled her seat and removed her shirt. There were wet wipes in her diaper bag so he got those and cleaned up her face as best he could. Since most of her clothes were dirty, Wade just put her changing mat on the passenger seat and undressed her in the car, cleaned her a bit again, then wrapped her up in the mat. She leaned heavily on his shoulder and complained again that her stomach was hurting when he closed the car door and left for the elevator.   
“I know, baby, I know. It’s gonna be better soon,” he said again, not sure if it would really be, but he figured if it was motion sickness she’d recover once she was sitting or laying down. 

She threw up again in the elevator, so Wade went straight for the bathroom. He sat Bea down in the tub, on her little blue mat with the fish on it that was there to keep her from slipping.   
“Look, the fishies waited for you to come take a bath, say hello fishies,” Wade said, still trying to distract Bea from crying, because it hurt his heart every second she did.   
“Hi,” he just said, sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.   
Wade removed his shirt and pants, threw them onto the floor in a heap, togeher with the blanket. Then he let some water run into the tub, glad Bea watched the water pour out of the big blue whale that sat on top of the faucet,

He helped her blow her nose, then took a washcloth and wiped her face, rinsing it to wipe her body. She calmed down eventually, looking a bit better but still pale.   
They talked a bit while Wade rinsed Bea with a cup that was actually for her to play with during bath time. He washed her hair and let the water out, then replaced it so she could play while he cleaned himself up.   
“Papa?”   
“Yeah?” he said, looking at her over the mirror. Wade had just let some hot water into the sink to give himself a quick wash with a cloth while Bea played.   
“Papa, owie?” she asked, pointing to him.   
“Huh? No, I don’t have an owie. I’m fine.”  
“No, Papa owie,” she insisted, pointing again,and Wade noticed he still hadn’t put on any pants. Bea rarely saw him without clothes, and the few times he cuddled with her without a shirt on were maybe when she was too small to notice. But now she openly stared at Wade’s legs, pointing to the scars and sores again.   
“Owie, Papa,” she said, then looked up to him, her little face showing concern.   
“No, my love, it doesn’t hurt. Really. It’s just Papa’s skin. That’s what it looks like.”  
“No owie?”  
“No owie, promise.”  
Bea nodded looking not quite satisfied but taking his word for it, it seemed. Wade smiled, kind of proud of his girl for being so smart. After her bath she was still drowsy and Wade snuggled her a while before offering some crackers and tea, just so she had something in her stomach again.   
She nibbled on the crackers every now and then while flipping through one of her books. Wade put on some cartoons for her to watch and held her in her arms until Peter came home.

The younger man smiled warmly the second he saw his family, pushing off his shoes in the hallway.   
“Welcome home, sweetie,” Wade greeted, coming over from the living room.  
“Hi,” Peter said and leaned in for a quick kiss, his hand on Bea’s back. “What’s going on here? She looks so pale.”  
“Yeah, she got carsick and we had a little throwing up going on,” Wade explained, smiling when Bea reached out for Peter. She hugged him and then leaned on his shoulder. “She’s better now, but such a cuddly little bear,” Wade added, rubbing his hand over Bea’s back.   
Peter smiled and kissed her head.   
“Then we’ll cuddle. We can cuddle a lot in the future, I’m going to stay home more.”  
Wade had to do a double take at the last one.   
“Wait, what?”  
“I’m going to stay a bit,” Peter repeated, looking at his lover. Bea babbled something against Peter’s shoulder and he just hummed to tell her he was listening.   
“So ... wait, is it ... you know, that bad?”  
“Don’t know. But I don’t want to take any chances. After the autopsy it’s just us working on the data and algorythms, I can easily do that from home. And if the team does need me, then I’ll come in for a few hours.”  
“Okay, uh ...,” Wade mumbled, unsure what to say in front of Bea. Peter seemed to understand his struggled and reached out with one hand to entwine their fingers.   
“It’s alright,” he said more quietly. “Really. It’s just ... we couldn’t infect all of the data from the phone with viruses. Some of it is still out there. Someone has it. And ... I don’t want to leave you two alone all day anymore.”

Wade nodded, then went over to the kitchen to make some more tea for his cuties and start making dinner. He was sure the situation was a lot more dire than Peter made seem in front of Bea.   
Someone still had those pictures of her … the mere thought of it made Wade's blood boil and his fingers itch with the urge to take his guns and knives and just go on a killing spree. 

And there was something else, Wade could see it in Peter's eyes, the way he looked at Bea. Something had happened at work, the younger man had learned something that day concerning their daughter that still haunted him every time he looked at her.   
Wade clenched his fists briefly, then put on a smile and prepared dinner.


	45. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii :D Back at it again with another chapter full of ouchie feels and fluffy cute stuff, and also, with [this!](http://yourprincessluna.deviantart.com/art/Spideypool-no-peeping-607142942?ga_submit_new=10%253A1462444652)
> 
> Hope you like it, enjoy <3

Peter was up first the next morning, quietly sliding out of bed and wandering into the bathroom. He suspected it'd be another twenty minutes until Bea woke up, so he got ready and then sorted the laundry for the day. 

They hadn't talked that much more last night, mainly because getting Bea to bed had been a bit more stressful than usually. She'd been upset and cried when it was time for bed, and didn't want to lay down. It was probably just a mood thing, but it had taken two long stories for her to calm down. 

While piling laundry into two bins, Peter thought of their latest conclusions at the lab. Everytime he looked at Bea, he thought of the numbers they'd come up with, of how many children just as beautiful and perfect as her still suffered. 

 

As soon as the autopsy ran – with a live video feed into the lab – they all began working on numbers. They wanted, had to, find out what exactly happened to all those women who got caught in the bases, what happened if there were children without powers, why that even occurred.   
Thankfully Emily and Julia had finally compiled all of their work into one database and had everything calculated by their trusty lab A.I. Dee.  
“Look at this!” Julia called and they all assembled around the main table. “With the 517's DNA we've worked out the system,” she began, letting some graphs appear on the big screen. 

They all took a moment to read through it all.  
“So that means there's a 40 percent success rate?” Preston asked, but the scientists shook their heads.   
“Probably lower than that, but we're going to calculate with the best estimates,” Emily said, showing a genome double helix on the screen.   
“A mutant's core mutation cells – the X genes or something similar to it – have to make up about 60 percent of his total gene pool for the mutation to show and not just be a recessive gene from a parent or distant relative.”  
Julia clicked on the remote and on the screen the helix parted and certain parts vanished – the human genes.   
“This is what they put into the sperm cells. To get those, they have to take some kind of existing DNA structure to put the mutant genes into. This tempering can't always go well, since genome engineering isn't exactly Lego blocks.”  
“So now they got a sperm cell with human genes, spliced with mutant DNA,” Emily continued, showing the parts of the double helix floating into a cell. “So far they got the chance for a mutant fetus, but they didn't stop there. They wanted a mutant with a healing factor, so they took another part of DNA from some individuals with the factor,”  
On screen, a different part of genes appeared underneath a stylized image of a person, floating towards the cell and merging into it.   
“This means that in this single sperm cell, they combined three different gene pools. This is definitely crazy, because with each added genome the chances for disease increases.”

“So with this method,” Phillip now asked, gesturing towards the screen. “With using that, how many women would they have to take in before _one_ of then successfully gives birth to a mutant child with a healing factor?”  
Peter had done the math before it showed up on the screen, and he sighed out a breath, feeling all his hopes just vanish.   
“About one hundred and twenty three … point five.”

Peter ran his hands over his face, thinking back to the women in the bases. Those had to be the successful ones, the ones whose bodies could handle the breeding, could deal with all those different genes being implanted into them. There were at least twenty in the last base. And if there were only two more bases, or just five … he just couldn't wrap his head around all this pain, all this suffering at the hands of those crazy scientists. 

Sadly, this wasn’t all.   
The autopsy had revealed that some of the numerous surgeries and procedures done to 517 had resulted in her X gene being activated. They had deliberately coaxed that out of her, then mutilated her – some organs were missing and had been for a long time, so whatever her original mutation was had probably to do with that. With the X gene still present and active in her, they bred her over and over again with mutant cells they created.   
Julia suspected that with all the powerful genes interacting, the success rate for women like her would have to be lower than 20 per cent.   
“Still,” she concluded, having to look away from the screen when the surgeon began stitching the pale body up again. “I think they tried something like this as often as possible. And why wouldn’t they? Even with a success rate that low, the few children that were born had to have extraordinary powers.”  
The team agreed that the two babies found under the rubble days after the explosion, with only a few scratches, had to come from a mother like 517. 

 

With the reported cases of women being kidnapped or just vanishing at an all-time high, and the not reported cases – especially for mutant women - probably doubling that, Peter felt an ice cold lump in his stomach, dreading that they’d solve so many of those cases and at the same time bring so much sorrow to the families still waiting for news on their loves ones. 

 

Peter's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a noise from Bea's nursery, and went to check. He opened the door carefully, but she was already up and standing in her crib, waiting for him to get her.   
“Good morning!” she said happily, raising her arms for Peter to pick her up.   
“Good morning, my love. Did you have a good sleep?”  
“Yeah,” she said, giggling when Peter kissed her cheek and hugged her close. Together they picked Bea’s outfit of the day – one of her new dresses, a white one with wide navy blue stripes, and matching leggings.   
“Is Bea’s tummy feeling better?” Peter asked when he sat her down on the changing table and began taking off her nighty.   
“Yeah, all better,” she said, glancing briefly to the door, maybe to listen for Wade. Peter helped her dress – and since he stayed home all day he put her into training pants and not into diapers, because it was really time they started her on potty training.   
“Pants, pants,” she said almost surprised.   
“Yeah, Bea’s getting big girl panties today, isn’t that cool?” Peter replied, wanting to make her excited for it.   
“Is cool,” she mumbled, but didn’t sound all that convinced. Peter smiled, because her voice was just the cutest thing. He knew that in the past few days she’d learned some new words that he hadn’t heard, yet. When he put Bea down on the floor, Peter thought that maybe while he was home he would get to hear all those new things she picked up.   
Bea helped him collect her clothes into a pile and then they made her bed together.   
“Daddy?”  
“Yes?”  
“Go work?”  
Peter turned, placing the last one of Bea’s stuffed animals onto her bed.   
“No, baby. I’ll stay with you and Papa today.”  
“Stay?”  
“Yeah, I’ll stay.”  
Bea smiled, her wonderful blue eyes sparkling when Peter picked her up. She looked so happy that Peter thought he might just never work again. He could definitely see why Wade liked being home every day. 

“Papa! Good morning!” Bea shouted when Peter opened the door to their bedroom. He grinned when Wade turned, looking at their girl with one eye. Well, after last night, Peter knew why the older man was so sleepy. That didn’t mean Bea was any more understanding. She was up, so would be everyone else.   
“Good morning, princess. Aw, you look so cute in your dress.”   
Peter smiled and watched Bea climb up into the bed with Wade, and pull the blanket away from him that he tried to hide under.   
“Up, up, Papa!” she demanded, but Wade shook his head, a playful smile on his lips.   
“No, Papa's not getting up today. Nope.”  
“Up!”  
“No.”  
“Papa!”  
Wade grinned at Bea's little authority, but pretended to hide under the blanket again.   
“No!” Bea chided, pulling on the blanket. Wade laughed and pulled Bea into a hug.   
“I only get up when I get a big good morning kiss.”  
Bea leaned in and smacked a kiss onto Wade's cheek.   
“Aw, amazing. Thank you. - Also, I need one from Daddy.”  
Peter laughed, but went over to the bed because Bea would not let him get away with anything else. Wade reached out and grabbed Peter's wrist to pull him to the bed.   
“So, you're really not gonna get up without another kiss?”  
“Nah. I need strength. Like, the power of love and all that.”  
Peter grinned, leaning down to brush a chaste kiss to Wade's lips. Bea looked satisfied when Wade sat up, climbing off the bed.   
“You go get breakfast with Daddy, I'll come to the kitchen in a moment,” Wade said, wrapping the sheet around his body as he got up. Bea nodded and took Peter's hand, which was pretty cute. Peter thought that maybe she wanted to make sure he really did stay with them. 

“What do you want for breakfast?” Peter asked as they walked to the kitchen, Bea just following him around.  
“Ce'al”  
“Cereal?”  
“Yes, please,” Bea said, hopping around the kitchen happily when Peter opened the cabinet. He didn't mention the chocolate, cookies and candy he also found there. While he wasn't against Bea having some sugar every now and then, Peter secretly suspected that Wade gave her a bit more than they agreed on. Well, as long as Peter remembered to balance it out with something healthy, they should be okay.   
He cut up some strawberries and half a banana, then sprinkled some blueberries into the cereal and smirked at Bea's excitement when he poured milk over it all. 

“Wow, look at my big girl sitting in her big girl chair!” Wade praised when he came to the kitchen, dressed in sweatpants and a robe. He kissed Peter and Bea on the cheeks both and then went to fix the little girl's hair.   
Since they were both home and had enough time in the morning to watch over her, Bea got to sit in her highchair without being strapped in and without using the little table in front of it, but the real dining table instead. She seemed very proud of herself, and Peter let her have the moment even though when he followed that brief idea of his, he really wanted to web her to the chair. He trusted his instincts that he'd be fast enough to catch her should anything happen. 

Wade brushed out Bea's hair while she was eating, putting it up into pigtails.  
“Bow, Papa,” Bea mumbled between bites and looked up to Wade briefly.   
“Don’t you worry, I got you a bow,” Wade said, pulling a navy blue cloth bow from the pocket of his robe. It had a single sparkling stone in the middle, making her whole outfit look just a bit more dressy than casual. Leave it to Wade to always have the perfect accessory for Bea.   
“I’ll look up a salon today and try to get an appointment while I’m still there. Wouldn’t want to miss baby’s first real haircut,” Peter mentioned and Wade grinned, nodding quickly.   
“Bet she’ll look even cuter. So much cute!” he joked and kissed Bea’s cheek until she giggled. “Oh, you know what, I’ll go and get a look at that place near the Mall. I think they also do kids and if it’s alright with you I’ll go run some errands and maybe get an appointment for little Missy here.”  
“That’d be great,” Peter said, glancing at the news on TV – he watched it with subtitles and since the monitor was behind Bea, she didn't even notice it was on. “You just go ahead, take some time off daddy duty, I'll take care of Bea.”  
“You just wanna cuddle her all day, confess,” Wade murmured and brushed a kiss to Peter's head before he got some breakfast for himself – mindfully mixing in some lucky charms only in his own bowl and only in the kitchen where Bea wouldn't see it. Cereal for breakfast was one thing, but sugar and marshmallows for breakfast were another thing, so Peter had a strict rule about that. 

When Wade later put some shoes on, already dressed in a very nice pair of dark jeans and his usual leather jacket and gloves, Bea watched him closely. Peter had put her in her play area so he could get the dining table and kitchen cleaned up.   
“Papa. Go work?” she asked, her head tilted a bit as if she was trying to make sense of the situation.   
“Uh, yeah kind of. I'll be back soon,” Wade said and gave Bea a quick kiss, then was out the door before she could even start crying. She did look a bit grumpy, though, so Peter quickly distracted her by asking if she could help unload the dishwasher. 

“Daddy, do ABC’s,” Bea decided a bit later, picking up a big box from her play area and pouring flashcards onto the floor.   
”Sure, let’s practice. What’s this letter?”  
“A!”  
“Very good – now this one?”

They continued like this for a while, eventually Peter mixed in numbers and colors, then he let Bea find the colors he said and let her put the cards in rainbow order. At some point she started picking out letters all by herself, then putting them onto the floor.   
“A – B – C – D – E,” she sang, and Peter realized that she was picking out the matching cards and placing them into a line. He watched patiently until she had finished the whole alphabet, wondering if that was normal for a child under two. 

 

Right in time for Bea's nap, Wade was back with the good news that they had an appointment for her haircut for the very next day. Wade helped put Bea down and she seemed happy that both of her dads were back with her.   
With some quiet time on his hands Peter cleaned up her play area and got a big plastic box from their storage closet. They switched her toys out every two or three days, so she wouldn’t get bored with them too fast.  
“Hey, I’m downstars, message if you guys need anything,” Wade said when he poked his head over Peter’s shoulder, brushing a soft kiss to the younger man’s cheek.   
“We’ll be fine, you go and work. Don’t hurry,” Peter said, because even though Wade healed from virtually anything, Peter didn’t want him to get hurt.   
“Only a little,” Wade replied, then he was off to the other floors. There was one more apartment that needed some bigger renovations, and one more bathroom where a new tub had to be installed. Wade left the apartment and Peter soon heard him open one of the janitor’s closets on their floor, where he kept most of his tools. 

In one of the plastic boxes in the storage Peter found a xylophone that aunt May had given Bea a while ago. He considered it for a moment, then packed it into the box of “new” toys.  
After her nap and a little snack, Bea went straight to her play area to investigate. She bumbled around here and there a bit, pulling out a few toys, until she noticed the instrument.  
“Play song?” Bea asked, and Peter was surprised that she knew that it would do that, given that she never really played with it.   
“Yeah, we can play a song on that. Here, hold this one,” Peter said, giving Bea one of the sticks. She watched Peter play some tunes and then proceeded to just hit some random keys.   
“Song, Daddy,” she requested after her tries didn’t sound like one. Peter played twinkle twinkle little star for her, slow so that she could see which colors he hit. Bea was happy and requested Peter to play it again, and again.   
Eventually he had her sit in front of him and moved her hand on the keys, hitting them slowly so that she played the song this time. Bea loved it and had Peter repeat the movements two more times. Peter thought he might never get this song out of his head again and wanted to suggest they play something else, when Bea moved on her own.   
Peter watched as she played twinkle twinkle little star all by herself, then clapped and looked at Peter.   
“Wow, how cool! Yay!” he said automatically and clapped, seeing her smile happily, but Peter’s mind was running wild. They had been at this just a few minutes, and she’d already remembered how to play the song. 

They played some more, then Peter was a bit over all the chiming in his ears and suggested they drew some pictures. Together they cleaned up a bit and put Bea’s little table in the middle of the play area. Peter brought some paper from his desk and they started doodling around for a while.   
Peter realized after a moment that Bea was copying his circles on the paper, and decided to step it up a bit, just out of curiousity. He drew a heart, and Bea said she wanted to do that, too.   
“Me, too!” was something she learned at daycare, of course and what was now heard a few times each day.   
“Look, you draw one side like this ... and then the other one like this,” Peter said, slowly making an orange heart appear on the paper. Bea watched him repeat it once more, then tried it for herself. It looked a bit scribbly, but it was clear to see what it was supposed to be.   
“Very good, what a beautiful heart. Wanna color it?” Peter asked, offering up some more pencils. Bea nodded eagerly, happy to have made it, and began coloring all over the paper.   
She made some more hearts, but quickly asked for more shapes. Peter asked her which ones she knew already and she drew a circle, a triangle and a square. And some jagged lines that she claimed were a star.   
“More shape, please,” she asked politely, and Peter showed her. 

By dinner time, she could draw a bumblebee and a butterfly, a real star and some very pretty hearts and flowers. She still wanted to know more, her blue eyes gleaming with excitement, but Peter quickly distracted her with dinner preparations.   
Sinde he was around now, he’d take over some of the cooking, so Wade didn’t have to do all of it. He’d texted the Merc already stating that he could take his time with the renovations.   
“Cook?” Bea asked and Peter nodded.   
“Yeah, we’re gonna cook. Do you want to help me?”  
“Yes!”  
Peter gave Bea their plates one by one to put onto the table, then some spoons – they also needed forks but he didn’t want to give them to her. She got some cups all by herself – out of the drawer with everything plastic in it, where her own cups usually were – and put them onto the table as well. Everything was kind of close to the edge, gathered around one side of the table, but it was the effort that counted.   
“Thank you, you’re a great helper. How about you clean up your toys now,” Peter offered and was pleasantly surprised that Bea went over without another word, beginning to pick up all pencils and crayons, put them into their boxes and then gather the paper. She even pushed her little table and chair to the wall again and picked up some scattered wooden blocks. 

“Hey, where’s my girl?” Wade called when he got home, brushing a kiss to Peter’s cheek. Bea came running around the corner, smiling brightly, and jumped into Wade’s arms. She told him all about their playtime – most of it babbling because she talked too fast – and showed off her pictures. Wade picked one to add to the ever growing collection on the fridge.

 

Bea went to bed real quick this evening, giving Peter and Wade some more time for just the two of them. Peter wanted to talk about everything that was going on, and Wade probably, too, but they just ended up making out the moment they were behind the closed bedroom door. Clothes were pulled off in a hurry and they all but fell into bed, roughly pushing the covers and blankets aside.

 

”I wanted to talk to you about something,” Peter began when they were settled into bed eventually, arms slung around one another and Peter’s head resting on Wade’s chest.   
“Hmm?” Wade just hummed, his eyes closed already. He opened them when Peter didn’t continue, holding the younger man’s gaze, who’d looked up at him.   
“When I played with Bea today,” Peter began, feeling anxious all of a sudden. He knew how protective Wade was of of Bea’s childhood, but it also wasn’t like Peter forced her into something, It was just an observation.   
“What is it?” Wade asked eventually, quiet and content, but his brow furrowed the smallest bit.  
“I just noticed something ... well, okay, it’s not just something. It’s quite important.”  
“Now you’re scaring me.”  
”No, no, it’s nothing bad,” Peter quickly soothed, patting Wade’s chest. He let his hand linker, running his index finger over one of Wade’s scars. The older man’s muscle jumped and Peter smirked, because he knew Wade was ticklish on some parts of his skin.   
“So, what did you notice?”  
“That ... that Bea is very, very smart. Much more than we thought.”  
“Oh, well, of course she is. She’s our smart girl.”  
“No, I mean, yeah, but Wade... she is _highly intelligent_.”  
“So ...” Wade began, reaching up with one arm to pull another pillow underneath his head so he could look at Peter better. “Does that mean you want to do something about it?”  
“It’s not ... Wade, please, it’s nothing bad, really;” Peter said and smiled. “I just think we need to be prepared. Today, while you were working, she learned how to play a song on her little xylophone in about ten minutes, and then wanted me to teach her more. Wade, she wants to know so much. But ...”  
“But?”  
“But I think it might not be okay to just teach her everything she wants to learn? Not that I wouldn’t, but ... well.”  
“She should have a real childhood,” Wade reminded, a bit more authority in his voice than Peter was used to.   
The hero nodded, not accusing Wade of anything. He knew Wade and Bea had all kinds of fun when he was at work, and Bea was always well and happy with Wade. Which was perfectly fine, but soon that could end up not being enough for her.   
“You know,” Peter began, feeling safe enough to speak his mind in the arms of his lover and in their dim bedroom. “I’m just scared. That something will happen, that she’ll get bored or use her powers and then people notice her. And want to get her to one of these mutant schools.”  
They both knew that the government of some cities more or less pressured parents of mutant children into sending their kids to boarding schools as soon as possible.   
“Which is bullshit,” Wade growled, his hold on Peter tightening. “What’s she gonna do there when she has two perfectly capable fathers?”  
“Well, I’m just paranoid, I think.”  
“We all are. What with you staying home and all. – You know what? As long as you’re with her, she’s gonna learn a lot more anyways. We all know I just let her play and be cute ‘n all.”  
Peter smirked, but thought that this was also something Bea needed.  
“Then we’ll try a few things, she how she takes it.”  
“Yeah. – So you tellin’ me about why you really stay home?”  
Peter felt caught, he couldn’t even hide his expression that fast.   
“Uh,” he just said, like a deer in the headlights. Wade smirked, shrugging briefly, moving them both.   
“Had that kinda feeling you were keeping something from me.”  
“Yeah,” Peter admitted, because there was no need for lying. “As I said, there are still those pictures out there of Bea.”  
“But when she’s with me all day, you wouldn’t have to stay here.”  
“No ... well.”  
“Are you guys close to finding them?”  
They both knew that by “them”, Wade referrerd to whoever ran the bases.  
“Maybe,” Peter answered thruthfully. “But we’re closer to finding out who sells children and women from the bases to ... to ... brothels or parties.”  
“And when we go into those places, you and Bea won’t be there.”  
Peter looked up, his eyes widening.   
“Honey, you will come with us. We ... I talked about this with Stark very briefly ... he wants us out of the way in case we stir up anything and people come looking for Bea.”  
“Because they still have their picture.”  
“And mine. The airport is full of people, anybody could identify us. I ... I might have to get away from Bea to protect her. You can protect her.”  
Wade nodded, a line showing between his eyebrows as he stared at the ceiling.   
“Okay. We leave. When?”  
Peter reached up, brushing his fingers over Wade’s cheek.   
“It’s short notice. We stay at a hotel, not at a safehouse. It’s supposed to look like any other vacation. – the orphanage will have more security durin that time, too.”  
Wade just nodded, looking at the ceiling still, catching Peter’s hand on his cheek.  
“We’re gonna be okay, sweetie. It’s over soon,” he promised, and Peter nodded as well, letting his hand sink to Wade’s chest, right over his heart. 

They both fell silent when Wade reached over to turn off the dimmed light on his side of the bed. Now the only thing illuminated just a bit was the baby monitor on Peter’s nightstand, showing that Bea was curled up in her bed peacefully.   
“Wade,” Peter began after a moment, whispering because he didn’t trust his voice. “The next mission ... the next real mission ... it might be a kill mission.”  
“Well, I’m no stranger to that,” the Merc answered calmly, his rough hands stroking over Peter’s back.   
“But I am,” he whispered back, the words barely audible in the dark. 

Wade’s arms around Peter tensed, held him close, but he didn’t object. Because at that point they were both sure they’d go when it was safe to leave Bea with aunt May. They would both go and they would likely both kill.   
For their daughter.


	46. Chapter 46

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D On time and all, with an XXL chap just for you lovely people <3  
> If you want, you can now follow me on Tumblr, [ here. ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/)   
> I'm trying to get the hang of things, so bear with me if something's looking funny or not working XD

The next morning Peter got to pick Bea up from her room again, really enjoying seeing her jump up and down in her crib. She was so bubbly and happy even in the morning and told Peter about some of her toys she wanted to play with while he dressed her.   
Wade was already in the kitchen, preparing their breakfast, when Peter came into the room with Bea. For a change he'd dressed her in a pair of light blue jeans and a frilly white top and tried his best to get her hair into those cute tiny buns at each side of her head. Peter had really no idea how Wade did it so that it looked like cute mickey mouse ears, his own try looked more like telletubby antlers.  
When Bea ran off to her play area, Peter had a quick idea, just wanting to see what she'd do.   
“Bea, can you play that song for Papa? The one from yesterday?” he asked, deliberately not mentioning which one they had played. Bea looked at him for a moment, thought about his words, then nodded and went over to her xylophone. She grabbed one of the sticks and then played twinkle twinkle little star for Wade, without missing a beat.   
“Wow, how cool! That was awesome!” Wade praised, happy about Bea’s big smile. She ran over to the kitchen and said something to Wade none of them understood, hugged his legs.   
“What was that?”  
“Pancake!” Bea repeated, jumping up and down.  
“Yeah, they’re almost done. Go and get your chair ready,” Wade said, and Bea pulled her chair from the table. Peter helped her up and pushed her to the table, so they could both wait for breakfast. 

“Daddy, stay?”   
“Yeah, I’ll stay today,” Peter said, reaching out and running his fingers over Bea’s hand. She smiled and held onto Peter’s hand.   
“Dwaw, Daddy. Lots pick,” she said while her little fingers played on Peter’s watch.   
“Lots of pictures today, huh?”  
“Yeah!”  
“Okay, then we’ll draw.”

 

After a super long drawing and painting session, Bea was napping and Wade was downstairs working on the apartments, so Peter went to his desk and started working, too. The programme his team had worked on was starting to take form, the framework done already, only the data missing.   
The DNA had given them a final number to work with, how many women it would take to produce one child. They compared that to the cases of missing women, both from open databases from the police, but also from the more covert ones of FBI and SHIELD, thanks to Stark’s hacking. Peter’s very first algorythm had gotten a makeover from Preston and was integrated into the programme, calculating the requirements for a possible base.   
Peter worked on implementing some parameters for deliveries, because the base did need some things every now and then. A big city had to be at least within driving distance, since planes would draw too much attention and might be too small for whatever they needed. And the city had to be big enough to sell off the woman and children to and not get into conflict with the authorities. A big, anonymous city.   
Well, that wasn’t that hard around the world. 

Peter sighed when the lines of code just didn’t want to end. He was glad that Preston worked around the clock, whenever his laptop announced with a ping that one of his team members had finished another package to implement into the programme, only waiting for him to check it one last time.   
Had he been just on his own with that, Peter was sure this whole thing would have taken him months to do, even with his previous knowledge in coding. 

And when it was all done ... they let it run, assembled however many teams they needed and first took out all of the trafficking rings that made deals with the bases. When that was done, and the communication with the bases tapped so that they wouldn’t know anything happened at all, it was time for step two.   
Finding all the bases, infiltrating them and not leaving a single stone unturned until all the children and women were free and all those scientists were behind bars. 

Peter sighed, thinking that he was quite glad that they weren’t in the country for step one, but he wished they could just stay far far away with Bea until everything was over. There was no immediate threat to her, but somewhere out there there were still her pictures. 

Bea was up earlier than usual, so Peter took it slow, just had a snack with her, sitting on the floor on her play mat.   
“Daddy?” she asked, grabbing a berry from her bowl.   
“Yes?”  
She looked at Peter, munching on her blueberry, then grabbing another before she continued.   
“Stay?”  
“Yeah, I’ll stay.”   
Bea nodded, taking another berry and eating it slowly. Peter watched her, finding it very interesting that she so obviously pondered things at her age.   
“Daddy,” she began again after a moment. “You stay. Bad man?”  
“Uh,” Peter mumbled, following Bea’s thoughts. She assumed there had to be some kind of threat or “bad man” around because Peter was with her. “N-no, there are no bad men, my love. I just want to be with you. I missed you,” he quickly lied.  
“Oh,” Bea said and picked another berry from the bowl. She smiled up at Peter after eating it.   
“Miss you, too,” she said, looking like Wade when she smiled like that.   
Peter hugged Bea close and told her he loved her very much, feeling a little bad for lying to her but also good that she'd believed him and wasn't worried or scared. 

Peter kept Bea busy with some toys, no big games, until Wade came back up and they could get going to the hair salon. Bea was excited, but she didn't understand what was happening just yet.   
Wade hesitated at the door to the salon, maybe uncomfortable being stared at by people working in the beauty business. But Bea grabbed Wade's hand before any of them could say anything.   
The women at the salon were really experienced with kids and had Bea sit on a sparkly golden seat, in front of a mirror framed with glass jewels. They told her this was the princess chair – perfectly guessed from the Disney princesses on her shirt – that she’d love that, and so Bea got to watch a video on a tablet computer while a very nice lady cut her hair. She worked pretty fast, always keeping the edge of the scissors far away from Bea’s face.   
Still, Peter noticed that Wade had gotten very quiet and very pale, pretending to concentrate on the screen of his phone as he filmed Bea’s first ever real haircut. 

When Bea hopped off the chair, they couldn’t hide their smiles, she just looked too sweet. Sadly the big curls she had as a baby had eventually grown out, leaving silky, straight blonde hair. Her slighlty out of shape cut that Peter had tried his best on, was now a short bob haircut, not quite reaching her shoulders. It would definitely take a bit more maintenance than before, and Wade would have to do Bea’s hairstyles from now on, but it looked adorable. Because she still had some thinner hair at the front, they gave her bangs to grow out later.   
“Man, what a cutie you are. Can you smile for the camera so we can show granny?” Wade said and Bea turned to him with a big smile. “Perfect. Wanna hit send?”  
“Yes,” she said happily and pushed the button on the display to send the message to aunt May. “See?”  
“Nothing to see, yet, we have to be patient for granny May to type,” Wade said, promising he’d let Bea know as soon as May replied.   
“Okay,” Bea mumbled, touching the ends of her hair again and again. She asked to look into the mirror again before they left, and politely said thank you to the ladies at the salon. 

 

During the next few days, they got to do some chores that just needed another adult. Like getting Bea's clothes fitted.   
Wade had seen enough little girls run around malls or playgrounds with hair ties or clips or whatnot in the back of their dress, holding it up because it was a number too big. Now Wade wasn't against buying too big clothes, because he did that all the time for Bea. But his daughter would not run around with ill-fitting clothes, while he was perfectly okay making a few stitches to fix it.   
“Hold very still,” Peter said, holding Bea's shoulders so she wouldn't slip out of the way while Wade fitted her dress. He was just getting a few stitches in to know where he had to put the machine and sew it right, there was no way he'd leave some pins in the dress while Bea wore it.   
“Look,” Bea said and showed Peter his phone, where she watched some videos. “’Rora.”  
“Yes, that's Aurora. What's she doing?” Peter asked, leaning in to look at the screen.   
“Dancing,” Bea said and hummed along the song the princess sang when she met her prince in the forest. Wade grinned, accidentally poking himself in the finger. He didn't mind, though, just continued working.   
He managed to fit five dresses before Bea got to antsy, so they postponed the rest. Since it was time for her nap anyways, Peter put her down and Wade sat on the sofa with his sewing supplies in a blue crate. He decided against the sewing machine, because he didn't want to disturb Bea's sleep and because he liked having something to do. 

Peter made himself some coffee and went to the office area, the two of them working alongside quietly for a while.   
“So, how’s the lab stuff getting along?” Wade casually asked while changing the thread from white to red so the seams would match the design of the dress. Peter sighed in the corner.   
“Slow. Too slow for my liking ... I want this over,” he grrumbled, typing away on his laptop. Wade hummed in agreement, because he’d love to just run into some places and shoot around, yell at people until he found Hydra. But with how big this organisation was, with how deep their ties were going, they needed to be more careful. Know all their little hiding holes around the city and take them out in one strike.   
Not something Wade would see in person.   
He wanted nothing more than to kill some guys that hurt innocent people, that were after his daughter, but the protection of his family was so much more important than this.   
Maybe, Wade thought ... maybe it was a really good thing that killing went further and further back on his list of important things. Maybe it would just not exist anymore someday. 

 

Another few days later, Peter, Bea and Wade were in their master bathroom, all of them a bit nervous. Well, okay, Wade was very nervous. 

“Wade, please, relax,” Peter said, looking up in concentration. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see sweat breaking out on Wade's forehead.   
“Seriously, I will never again suggest making maccaroni pictures. Oh god,” Wade mumbled, looking very pale as Peter looked into Bea's nose with a flashlight. Their little one had somehow managed to push an uncooked maccaroni up her nose, and instead of being the sort of parents who drove to the ER for that, Peter decided he could take it out.   
He wasn't that kind of doctor, but he had enough understanding of a human body to get that done. The only thing Peter was really worried about was Wade, who looked about ready to pass out.   
“Hold still, guys,” Peter said, lifting the tweezers. Wade held Bea's face tilted up while their girl sat on the bathroom sink. She wasn't as scared as Peter thought she would be, although their had been a little bit of a meltdown when she realized taking the noodle out of her nose would take a bit.   
“Almost done, you're doing very well,” Peter said, meaning Bea as well as Wade, who went pale when Peter very carefully put the tweezers into Bea's nose. 

It took him two tries, but eventually he managed to pull the maccaroni out.   
“There it is, yay!” Peter said and Bea sniffled, looked at the noodle and then cried again. It wasn't a tantrum by any means, she was probably just scared that the maccaroni just came out of her nose. Peter pulled her into a hug, telling her that it's all okay again and that she just shouldn't do it again.   
Still, there were no maccaroni for dinner that day, mainly because Bea looked at the box of noodles now like it was something bad. 

 

Almost two weeks went by with Peter only stopping by the lab twice to look at the overall progress of things. It was the second meeting that went different than expected.   
The team had estimated that it’t be another three days for the computers to finish their work, but in the middle of their meeting, the screens flashed and Dee announced that the programme was done, all databases compiled, uploaded and ready to work. 

Everybody sprang into action, Peter called up Stark and the Captain to review the findings with them and the rest of the team made some room around the main table or cancelled immediate plans. 

Nobody had arrived for the meeting, yet, when the programme began to show the first few results. Peter had the A.I. Dee record the whole process so that they could review it later. 

First the programme threw a schematic depiction of New York on the screen, with several buildings circled red and some streets leading to them highlighted with flowing blue lines. So they had the main roads for delivery, that they should block, and the destinations for the women and children ready for sale.   
Peter felt sick to his stomach when he saw how many there were, some not even in bad districts. He saw one house blink red that he'd even passed on his way to work with Bea. 

“We also have hits to dark web sites offering children for sale. Meeting place is always transmitted encrypted, almost always one of those spots,” Preston read from his computer screen, pushing his glasses up higher.   
“And … man, really? There are very specific requests met, if you know what I mean.”  
“We can guess … but we still need it on the big screen for the meeting,” Peter sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with thumb and index finger when the text showed up. It was a screenshot of some customer reviews and an “ordering form” probably hacked from someone, since it was filled in.   
There were fields for preferred height, age, eye and hair color, but also for very specific looks like lots of make up, sports outfits or bruised knees.   
Peter got so sick to his stomach that he had to turn away when he read the line after a ticked off box: “should arrive ready for service”. No doubt what that meant. 

When the Captain and Stark had arrived, some of the other team members connected via video or conference chat, they presented the finds.   
“We’re gonna have to assemble teams fast, Jarvis, can you handle that?” Stark asked his A.I. that Peter was still a bit jealous of. Sure, they had their own in the lab, but working with Jarvis would be an honor.   
_”Certainly, Sir.”_  
On one of the smallest screens in the lab, lists began to appear and eventually little squares with names began to form – the A.I. sorting available members into teams. Jarvis would most likely also inform other Avengers members in case they needed backup, and coordinate the dispatch.  
“We have to be quick on this, I don’t want our intervention in these “markets” further apart than a week from us taking every base apart we can find,” the Captain said, looking ready to fight right then and there.   
“We don’t have the locations of the bases, yet?” Stark asked, all business, but with that angry gleam in his eyes whenever he saw those documents on the screens. 

Peter was about to answer on behalf of the team, but he was cut short by their biggest computer – lent by an astrophysics lab and actually meant to calculate incredibly big masses of data from space observatories – beeped to life.   
The whole Team looked up to see a world map form onscreen. A hush fell over all of them, and Peter was sure he’d stopped breathing when the first few dots appeared over the US.  
More followed, two for Canada, one even in Alaska, then several down in South America, so many more than expected in Europe and Asia, one even in Japan, one in Australia, and at last another two in Africa.  
All in all it was 32 bases.

Peter’s stomach sank when he glanced at a smaller window, seeing the estimated numbers for people – women and children mostly – being held hostage in there.   
_Over 40 000 people._  
Innocent victims.  
Children. _Babies_

“Oh god,” Peter whispered and had to sit down because his stomach started turning.  
“Shit,” Stark muttered from his place at the other end of the lab and the other team members reacted pretty much the same way.   
One long minute everyone had to gather their thoughts.

 

“We can’t risk word spreading. Not to the public and not on the net. Who knows where Hydra is hiding it’s ugly faces,” Stark said, already typing away on a slim computer he'd brought.  
“So it’s going to have to be a one-way trip,” Peter concluded. Needless to say that there would be people killed.  
“What do you mean?” Julia whispered next to him, eyes still fixed on the screen. It was the Captain who answered instead of Peter, his own lifelong feud with Hydra seemingly never ending.   
“We have to attack all of them in a single night. Worldwide. Don’t leave them any air to breathe, any hole to hide in.”

“So, it’s time to gather ‘round the table and finish this,” Stark said, waving Peter over. “A word, Mr. Parker.”  
“Of course,” Peter said, already knowing what was coming. 

 

The way back home was short, although Peter opted not to web himself home, and even took a different route home. He was feeling very paranoid and didn’t want to leave even the smallest risk of someone following him.   
When he was in the hallway in front of their apartment, Peter already heard his family. He put on a smile when he heard Disney songs and Bea and Wade singing along to them. He opened the door and heard her shout for Daddy, before she came running around the corner.   
“Hey, my sweet princess,” he greeted and lifted her up into his arms, hugging her tight. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”  
He looked over Bea’s shoulder to Wade, whose smile fell as he understood. He quickly hid his expression by pretending to concentrate on dinner.   
“S’prise?” Bea lisped, peeking around for Peter’s bag.   
“It’s nothing in the bag, it’s something biiig,” he said, hoping to sound genuinely excited so that Bea would be as well.   
“Big s’prise! Show, pleeeeease!”  
“I’ll tell you what it is,” Peter said, stepping over to the kitchen. 

“We’re gonna go on holiday,” the younger man said, looking at him pointedly that Wade immediately understood. It wasn’t a holiday, that was just for Bea. They had to leave.   
“So ... when do we pack?” Wade asked, because Bea knew what “leaving” meant and it would draw her attention and maybe scare or worry her. She still watched them both, cuddled up against Peter’s shoulder.   
“We can pack tonight. The flight starts tomorrow afternoon.”  
“And where do we go?” Wade asked, pouring Peter some of Bea’s tea. They were both big tea drinkers, Wade himself, not so much.  
“Hawaii. Isn’t that cool, Bea? We’re gonna see the beach and palm trees.”  
Bea, who was curled up a bit and suckling on her thumb, nodded quietly.   
“Great, yeah, it’s gonna be fun.”

Bea asked for the surprise again during dinner and Peter explained her what a vacation was. She seemed happy to go and wanted to pack her things. Since she had a cute little backpack for daycare, Peter helped her pick a few toys and pack them up. Her favourite teddy bear could be clipped onto the front of the backpack, so Bea could sleep with it on the plane. 

When she was sound asleep in her crib, Peter went to the bedroom to see that Wade had already taken out two suitcases for them.   
“Don’t take any weapons,” Peter reminded, putting a pile of Bea’s clothes onto the floor.   
“Don’t need any. The airport will be full of armed police, if I need anything I just steal it,” Wade replied calmly, and Peter nodded, although he really hoped they wouldn’t encounter anything bad on the way to the hotel.   
“So, tell me a bit more?” Wade asked while he was taking out some pants. Peter sat down and opened both suitcases, beginning to fold things in while Wade just threw it onto the floor next to him.   
“A driver is going to pick us up tomorrow, he’s got our tickets. There are ten undercover security guards from SI on the plane with us, and five agents at the hotel at all times, two of them staff. They apparantly deal with these kinds of vacations more often.”  
“How long are we staying?”  
“The booking is for one week, but if the team thinks it’s not safe to return then we’ll either go somewhere else or stay longer,” Peter explained, folding little dresses and short pants for Bea. He was glad they just recently bought sandals and new swim clothes for her, so she had everything she needed for a vacation.   
“And what about aunt May?” Wade asked, finally finding both their swim clothes in one of the drawers.   
“I thought about asking her to join us, but she’s already planned a weekend with her friends. They’re going to Atlantic City for a show and card games.”  
“Goddamn those ladies know the good life, huh?” Wade laughed.   
“Yeah, they’re gonna have fun. Be out of reach as well.”  
“Then let’s get some sun goin’ on. Don’t forget your camera, we need, like, a thousand pics of Bea with a flower necklace.”  
Peter laughed, glad that no matter the circumstances, this vacation would be fun. It had to be, with Bea around.

The next morning they packed their toiletries and Bea’s favourite blankie and her bear, as well as some snacks. Bea was in a good mood and happily helped Wade pack her diaper bag that the two of them would use as carry-on luggage. Peter had a backpack for his laptop – his personal one since the SI one wouldn’t function out of the city – and their snacks and drinks.   
Their driver was a man in a black suit behind the wheel of a SI corporate car. He brought them to the airport on the fastest possible way and handed Peter an envelope with their tickets.

The airport was full of people hurrying left and right, so Peter kept carrying Bea on his arms – they hadn’t taken any kind of seat or stroller for her, because neither Peter nor Wade got tired easily. She was a bit moody, but Peter hoped that he could draw out her naptime a little more until they were on the plane. 

“There, number ten,” Wade said, pointing to a number on a sign further down the hall. Peter nodded, carefully maneuvering his way through the crowd.  
Thankfully their line wasn’t that long, and it was mainly families with younger kids who would travel with them. Peter knew that most of the adults had something to do with the government or intelligence organisations, some maybe FBI or CIA. They stepped in line and Peter sat Bea down on the floor, wanting to give her the opportunity to walk and stand a bit before the flight. 

“When’s the last time we had a vacation like that?,” Peter mused after a moment, watching closely where Bea was off to, but she was just interested in another family’s children, that were about her age.   
“Not since our honeymoon. But it’s gonna be great, havin’ the little one see the beach for the first time,” Wade said with a warm smile, maybe already envisioning how much fun Bea would have. And they both were certain she would, because she loved exploring things. And on a first-class flight and stay, there was probably a lot to see.  
“You can tell her from that time you were a pirate,” Peter teased and they both laughed. 

Bea now played tag with a boy that was maybe a few months older than her, and his brother who was maybe four, the three kids running rounds around their families. When they all took some steps forward in line, Bea came back to them, the boys following her. Immediately, the older boy’s eyes darted up to Wade and grew large.

“Ew, gross. Why does your daddy look like that?” the boy asked and his mother, who stood nearby, gasped and blushed crimson red.   
“Andrew!”  
Bea pouted, and for a moment both Peter and Wade feared the worst. There was no way they could hide an outbreak in an airport. But Bea just stepped up to the boy, her shoulders squared and hands in her hips.   
“You meanie!” 

The mother now hurried over, face still red as a tomato, and grabbed the boy hard on the left arm.  
“Oh my god, I am so sorry – Andrew, apologize!” she hissed, the boy rolling his eyes but pursing his lips after another shake from his mom.  
“Sorry.”  
“You better be!” Bea growled and despite the tense situation, Peter had a hard time hiding his smile. No doubt Wade had taught her that phrase.   
“I’m really sorry, Sir,” she said, shushing her son and shoving him over to his siblings, who didn’t notice the conversation. “And, uh ... thank you, Sir. For your service to our country. Again, I’m sorry.”  
With that, she hurried away to her family.

“My what?” Wade asked with a frown.   
“She probably thinks you’re a veteran.”  
“Well, I kinda am.”

Now Bea stepped up and reached her hands out for Wade to pick her up, which he did right away.   
“Sad, papa?” she said and patted Wade’s head softly. Peter heard a mom behind them sigh, probably in love with their little girl.   
“I’m not sad,” Wade mumbled, but Bea wasn’t one to be fooled, just patted Wade’s cheek now. “Okay, maybe a little. Cheer me up with a kiss?”  
“Yes,” Bea said happily and gave Wade a smack on the cheek, then stuffing her favourite bear in his arms. “Here, take. Bear,” she said and stuffed her bear that she’d been holding into Wade’s arm.   
“Oh, the Spiderbear always makes Papa very, very happy.”  
Peter rolled his eyes at that, but smiled, glad to know Wade wasn’t taking those comments to heart anymore. 

Their flight was a bit delayed, but thankfully Bea didn’t get fussy. Instead, she was making everybody on the plane fall in love with her, even asking the stewardess very politely for some apple juice.   
“Thank you,” she said when she received her cup, taking small sips. Peter wanted her to calm down more, but Bea first wanted to look out of the window. When she’d seen that there were mostly clouds underneath the plane, she settled back into the seat, then after a moment climbed onto Peter’s lap.   
The younger man took her in her arms, smiling when she curled up like when they would sit in the rocking chair in her nursery when it was time for her bedtime story. Peter began patting Bea’s back slowly, rhythmically, and within a few minutes she was sound asleep in his lap. 

She slept for most of the flight, still a bit grumpy from Peter having to wake her up when they got off the plane.   
“Do we have a driver?” Wade asked on the way to collect their luggage, and Peter nodded. Bea was still clinging to his shoulder and he had his hands full with her and the backpack, all the while looking out for their suitcases appearing on the band.   
“I think so. Someone’s gonna wait to get us to the hotel, so we don’t have to take a shuttle or anything.”  
“Alright.”

Sure enough, as soon as they got their suitcases and were on the way out of the airport, they spotted a man in a black suit holding up a sign reading “Wilson family”. Just for security measures they had checked in under Wade's name and would use it during their stay.   
“First class flight, full service and all. I could get used to Stark handling our vacations,” Wade giggled, waving to their driver. The man even helped them pull one of the suitcases and was greeting Bea kindly.   
The ride to their hotel didn't take long and they could watch the beach fly by on the side of the road the whole time. Peter had Bea on his lap – not abiding the traffic law, but actually safer than in any seat – and watched the people on the beach and in the water.   
She was now really tired and began to get cranky, often just stared moodily out of the window while Peter tried his best to entertain her. 

The only thing really making her smile and distracting her for the time it took to check into the hotel, was the flower necklace the receptionist gave her. They also got a stack of brochures for the best restaurants and some attractions around, and of course the keys for their penthouse suite.   
Booking through S.I. probably automatically included top notch accommodation.

“They are really nice,” Peter said, gently rocking Bea in his arms. She was more or less slumped on Peter's shoulder, her fingers playing with the cloth flowers on her necklace.   
“And the place is amazing, too. I mean, look at this. I'm a bit offended that I didn't book this for our honeymoon,” Wade mentioned, before stepping out of the elevator. They were on a relatively short hallway on the top floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows spanning each side. There were just two doors and their key said they should take the one to the right. 

Their suit was absolutely stunning. They both stood in awe a moment after opening the door.   
“What the actual ... dude ...,” Wade gasped, thankfully still remembering not to curse around Bea.   
“Wow,” Peter breathed, stepping inside first to have a look around. 

There was one big open space for the living room and a kitchenette, everything in bright, natural colors that just added to making the place look a bit like from a dream. Next to the living room there was a spacious bathroom with a tub in front of the windows – Peter read on a little note that it was one-way glass and nobody could see in - and a smaller, office-like room with just a couch and a desk next to the master bedroom on the other side of the living room.   
Bea wandered around the suite slowly, clearly tired, and Peter hurried to get her blanket and a nighty from one of the suitcases. He put her down in the big bed in the master bedroom, and she was out like a light in under a minute, hugging her favourite bear.   
“Everything okay?” Wade whispered from the living room, where he was still looking for Bea's sheets. They brought a set from home so she would have a familiar scent and feeling in the strange bed, and also a mattress cover in case of accidents.   
“Yeah, she's out. Hopefully she'll sleep until dinnertime,” Peter replied, smiling when he went over to pull Wade from his task.  
“Wait, wait,” the Merc whispered against Peter’s lips after only one chaste kiss, and gestured to the suitcase. “I’ve ... kinda got something in here that I want you to see,” he said and opened the secret compartment.   
Of couse Stark hadn’t let them go with just their normal luggage – one of their suitcases was a special design with a flat compartment on the underside, just big enough to put their costumes in.   
“What’s that?” Peter said, quiet as well, because he didn’t want to wake Bea up. She was a good sleeper but they were in a strange environment and she’d probably have a lighter sleep.   
“I made something. Just in case ... well, actually I made it for Halloween, but ... we might need it now,” Wade mumbled, pulling a small piece of clothing out.   
Peter watched in surprise as Wade unfolded it, revealing a shirt and mask for Bea.   
“Oh,” Peter just breathed and carefully took the little costume. It was a white, long-sleeved shirt with pink hems all around, the color fading towards the middle. The shirt had a wide hood, white on the outside, pink and with a spider web design on the inside. The mask looked just like Peter’s, but it was of course white and only a bit pink around the eyes.   
“Oh, it’s so sweet ... but ... that’s ...”  
“Not what it’s for now. No,” Wade finished his sentence, taking the shirt and mask and putting it into Bea’s diaper bag. Along with both their masks.   
“I just thought ... if we need to fight ... we can’t have people, like, see us do it ... and we shouldn’t let people see that we habe a child with us. So ... she’s a superhero now.”  
Despite the situation, Peter had to laugh.   
“We have to explain that to her tonight,” he said, his smile turning whistful. “I hoped ... that she doesn’t have to get into contact with anything that soon.”  
“She might not need to. I mean, everything could go alright,” Wade replied, unpacking some of Bea’s clothes and putting it into neat stacks.   
Peter hummed in agreement, sitting down on the floor and opening the second suitcase. They sorted through their clothes almost quietly, just planning a shopping trip to get some snacks for their kitchenette, and a little walk around the hotel park to get Bea some playtime. 

Eventually Peter turned on his laptop, reluctantly opening the encrypted mail programme and scanning over the messages from his team and Stark.   
“Any news from home?” Wade asked when Peter was scowling at his computer screen for long minutes.   
“Nothing big. Mission planning is going good, they got ten small teams assembled – even Xavier's school sent a few people to help out.”  
“Pullin' out the big guns.”  
“Yeah. I hope it stays like that for the next missions ...”  
Wade looked up at that.   
“You … think more teams will be necessary?”  
Peter just nodded grimly, eventually closing the messenger and opening up an internet browser to look for activities in the area that would be fun for Bea.   
“I'm afraid we will. There … there are no fixed numbers, yet, but I think we have underestimated them for a long time. This is a lot bigger than we thought.”  
Wade breathed out soundly, turning again to get Bea's crib ready.


	47. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D  
> Another long chap full of fluff just for you cute people! Have a nice Friday and get ready for an awesome weekend <3
> 
> Enjoy!

Peter got one last mail before they woke Bea up from her nap. It was just a few lines about the missions preparations that Julia sent him – the others were probably too busy, but Julia and Emily hardly had anything to do at that moment, since most of their DNA work was done.  
There would be plenty to do for the two of them once the women and babies were rescued and their DNA samples were taken.

It wasn’t anywhere close to the top of their list, but the Team had decided that they’d try and find as many donors as possible, at least informing them of what had happened and whether they had any children. It was their right to know.  
Peter sighed when he thought of the possibility that his DNA might very well turn up on their search. 

After Bea’s nap they all went shopping together and got groceries for their little kitchenette – snacks were a must with a toddler around – and went for a stroll around the area. Wade found a cute floral dress for Bea, and insisted that at least once all of them needed to wear a hawaiian floral design.  
“Man, look how cute these are. Just for those I'd move here with you guys,” Wade said, looking at hats for their little one. Eventually they decided on a soft cloth hat and a cute straw hat for her.  
“Hat, hat,” Bea said, jumping around the two of them, absolutely excited about her new headgear. Peter realized she’s never worn hats a lot, aside from when she was a really small baby. Peter took a few pictures of her with the straw hat on.  
“We should send one-“  
Peter interrupted himself because he remembered that they were technically not allowed to communicate. Not with each other and definitely not with anybody anywhere else in the world. Peter’s laptop and both their phones only received encrypted messages from Stark Tower, and otherwise they were to keep their communication to a minimum.  
“We’ll show granny May when we’re back home. Have a super old –school photo reviewing evening with coffee and cake.”  
“And chocolate!” Bea said, still touching her hat all the time and watching her shadow closely.  
“And hot chocolate, of course.”

While Bea jumped along before them, Wade stepped over and took Peter’s hand in his, rubbing his thumb gently over the younger man’s hand.  
“Any news?” he asked quietly, listening to Bea still being happy about her hat.  
“Nothing. I think that’s good news, really,” Peter replied, thinking that as long as the team was busy working, the mission was still running smoothly.  
“Yeah. Guess so. – Hey, let’s take a walk through the park later,” Wade proposed, seeing how much fun Bea had.  
“I saw a barbecue place a bit further down the street, maybe we can have dinner there later,” Peter added, all too happy to get his mind off things and focus on having a good time with his family. Even though Wade and Peter were worried about the situation back home, they did want to keep a happy mood for Bea, and still get some nice memories with her.  
“All my yes to barbecue. Even more yes when I don’t have to grill.”  
“I thought you liked it?”  
“I do, but I’m on vacation and I don’t shouldn’t have to cook,” Wade said, reaching out automtically when Bea jumped next to them again, holding onto Wade’s hand.  
“Daddy, hold hand, too!” she observed, leaning over to look at Peter with a smile.  
”Yeah, I hold Daddy’s hand,” Wade said, lightly swinging both his arms. “I hold your hand, too. ‘Cause I love you guys.”  
Bea giggled, jumping again and a bit later asking for some snacks. Although he still waited for his phone to buzz with a coded info from back home, Peter smiled.

They saw a few other families from the hotel at the barbecue place, the kids eventually playing, running all around. It was all in all a great evening, they even got a dance show during their dinner. 

 

On their very first morning in Hawaii, the sun streaming into the big windows of the bedroom woke them up. Well, that and Bea climbing into their bed all by herself.  
“What …? Good morning?” Peter said, sitting up to reach out for Bea.  
“Good morning!” she said while pulling herself up on the blanket.  
“What are you doing here? How did you get out of bed?”  
“I climb,” she just said and Peter was horrified for a moment. Then he peeked around the corner to the little office Bea slept in and realized that she had somehow managed to take the safety off the side of the crib, so she could just push one side down and climb over easily.  
“Baby, this is dangerous. Can you please not do that anymore?” Peter asked, hugging Bea and pulling her under the blankets since they might as well just stay in bed a bit longer.  
“Okay,” she said simply, cuddling into Peter's pillow. She looked over at Wade and smiled.  
“Papa sleepy.”  
“Yeah, he's still sleeping.”  
“He sleep,” Bea said, cuddling into Peter’s chest. He huffed out a laugh and hugged her close, still a bit shocked by her just wandering out of bed by herself, but also really happy about having her cuddle in the morning.  
“Yeah, we’ll let him sleep. Did Bea sleep well?”  
“Yeah. I dream.”  
“Oh, about what?”  
“My hat.”  
“Well, it’s an awesome hat,” Peter said, smirking when Bea climbed over him to reach for his phone. Actually she wasn’t allowed on the phone, but Peter let that one slide just this once, and took a photo of the three of them.  
“We’re gonna go to the beach today, are you excited?”  
“Yeah. Like A’iel.”  
“Oh, sure you’re gonna be like Ariel. We can sing part of your world.”  
Bea hummed some tunes, which was the cutest thing, but also woke Wade up. Peter grinned when slowly but surely, a smile appeared on the older man’s lips,  
“What a way to wake up. Good morning,” Wade sighed, rolling over to hug both Peter and Bea to his side.  
“Morning. You sleepy,” Bea said and Wade laughed, rubbing his cheek on the pillow. He’d brought his own extra soft sheets that were better for his skin. Bea reached out and patted his forehead with her tiny hand, a very sweet gesture. She waited just a moment for Wade to react to her, but when Wade closed his eyes again she insisted on him getting up. 

“Papa, up, up! Hungwy!”  
“Oh and you think I'll make you breakfast? On vacation? You really want me to cook for you?” Wade asked incredulous, smirking when Bea nodded with a grin.  
“Brea'fast,” she lisped, tugging at Wade's hand again as if she could get him out of bed.  
“For the record, she didn't ask me to cook. She just asked me to cuddle,” Peter said smugly, leaning back into the pillow with a grin.  
Wade huffed and turned so that he was facing his own pillow again.  
“Then go and get your own breakfast, both of you. You don't appreciate me at all!”  
“Aww, now Papa's pouty!” Peter teased, laughing when Bea jumped onto Wade's back.  
“No pouty! C'mon, get, brea'fast,” she said and patted Wade's bald head, laughing when he turned and almost threw her off. Of course he caught her just right, so nobody got hurt.  
Still, every time he saw this it made Peter's wrists tingle to shoot a web at Bea and keep her safer than she already was.  
Bea squealed when Wade tickled her, causing a ruckus on the bed and almost all pillows falling off. 

Eventually they made it out of bed and Wade prepared pancakes in their little kitchen, while Bea jumped around to the Barney songs on TV, snacking some fresh fruit every now and then.  
“She probably liked you better because you got her and took her to our bed,” Wade said while stirring the last round of batter, a pile of pancakes already on one of the plates. Peter looked up from where he was just cutting a Mango.  
“I didn't get her. She climbed out,” he replied quietly, because he didn't want Bea to feel like he was talking bad about her.  
“Aw, no. How in the big F does she do that?”  
“I think she saw us take the safety off the side and tried it herself. Maybe we should just take the front off altogether.”  
Wade sighed, pouring another ladle of batter into the pan.  
“I guess. Let's wait a bit. If she does it again, we take it off. Would be too nice if she actually listened to us.”  
“She does. I think it's just the new surroundings. Maybe we should try letting her sleep in the bedroom with us. In her own bed, but in the same room.”  
“Aw, come on!” Wade now whined and Peter burst out laughing at his pitiful tone. “No, please! I still didn't get some of that booty!”  
“And you won't if you don't keep your voice down,” Peter giggled, nodding towards Bea. She didn't listen to them, but you could never know what she picked up on.  
“Sorry,” Wade mumbled with a cheeky grin, saying something else so quietly Peter didn't understand, and went back to tend to their food.

 

After a good relaxed breakfast, they decided to visit the beach. There was something going on in town, so it wasn’t as crowded, which was just perfect. Peter wasn’t even bothered that they missed out on whatever event that happened, because ever since they got Bea, they didn’t like being in crowds, neither did she.  
In their hotel room, Peter helped her into her brand new purple and turqoise bathing suit, with the top purple and stiped, resembling sea shells, and the bottom turqoise with printed on scales. 

Now, Bea was running on the sand, squealing whenever the waves came closer to her. She observed her own footprints and even found a seashell that she proudly left with Wade on their towel, telling him that she _had to_ take it home to show aunt May.  
The next second, she was off again. 

“You better hurry, she's gonna run like that for the next few hours,” Wade teased when Peter rummaged through their bag. The younger man huffed and eventually had to give up.  
“Damnit, I think I forgot her sunscreen in our room,” Peter muttered and quickly set their bag down next to Wade. “I’m gonna go get it, be right back!”  
“Sure, Imma keep watch on little Ariel out there.”

 

Wade waved at Bea, who then jumped around on the sand and looked at the footprints she was leaving. She spotted the kids from one of the few families there building a sandcastle and went to investigate.  
There were two boys and a girl, which was maybe a year older than Bea, while the boys looked like they were about in first or second grade. They hadn't seen those kids before, but Wade saw the oldest boy wearing an FBI baseball hat and thought that maybe that wasn't just a cool fashion statement, but something borrowed from his Dad, so they had to be guests of the same hotel.  
Bea turned to look for Wade, and he waved for her again. While she was a little miss independent most of the time, she always made sure someone she knew was close. 

“Oh, she’s yours?” a voice asked and Wade looked to the side, where a Mom sat under an umbrella like his, patting her pregnant belly. Wade nodded, smiling proudly.  
“Yeah, looks like Bea is learning all about sandcastle statics from your little ones.”  
The woman giggled, seemingly not bothered the slightest by Wade’s bare arms and feet. Maybe that was Bea's magic again, because whenever they were together, she made everybody be extra nice to Wade.  
“I’ve heard nothing but ‘sandcastle’ since we boarded the plane. I’m afraid they’re never gonna leave the beach.”  
“I hope we don’t have to brush sand out of our luggage at the TSA.”  
“Well, I bet you’re gonna have some souvenirs with you,” she said and nodded to the seashell Bea brought.  
“Oh, that’s fine. Her grandma will love them.”  
“You could have her paint them, make a nice little gift out of it.”  
“Great idea. She loves to paint.”  
“My youngest, too. He could barely sit when he insisted on having finger paints like the big boys. Ever since then, it's his favourite.”

“Hey, that’s our toy!” one of the boys complained, and the two parents turned, their conversation interrupted.  
Immediately, Wade’s blood began to boil when he saw a middle aged man – in an ugly speedo nonetheless – wiggling the plastic shovel around, grinning creepily.  
“Then go get it, let’s play tag!” he announced and when the boy refused, the guy looked at Bea. “My, what a nice swimsuit you got there,” he said and reached down for her, causing her to take a step back. 

Wade was at his side in a second, hearing the other Mom behind him yell at their kids to come to her, since she probably couldn’t stand up so quickly. A scarred hand closed around the guy’s neck and Wade all but threw him onto the sand several feet from Bea.  
“Don’t even think about touching her or I’ll rip you to pieces!” he snarled, reaching behind himself to fake having a gun – that one time in his life where he really wasn't armed – and the guy gave him a dirty look.  
“What? Wanna fight? Don’t think I wouldn’t,” Wade growled, cracking his knuckles and stepping closer when he caught the guy looking at Bea again. He jumped up and Wade thought he could land a punch, but the guy ran away on unsteady legs. 

“Daddy!” Bea shouted, and ran off. Wade saw Peter just strolling back onto the beach, catching their little one as she threw herself at him with her eyes wide, telling him what just happened.  
“Daddy, bad man! Bad man!”  
“What?”  
“Bad man! Papa help us!” she explained excitedly, flapping one arm out to show how far Wade had thrown him.  
“Oh, wow … um … what?”  
“Papa's a hero!”  
“Sure am, Bea-bear. Hey, how fast can you run to our blanket?” Wade asked cheerfully and grinned when Bea turned and dashed away, her little steps even slower through the sand. 

“There was some creeper hitting on the kids. I ... I kinda lost it for a moment. But the way he looked at the kids, I just ...”  
“This is disgusting ...,” Peter muttered, trying to hide his real feelings and smile for Bea then, who hadn’t heard his words. She was now rummaging through their bag until she found her juice and took some big sips. Then she investigated the sunscreen bottle.  
Peter smiled, glad she didn’t worry about this too much, and sat on one side of the blanket, patting the spot before him.  
“Come over, Bea-bear, we need to get some sunscreen onto you.”  
“You need it, too, Daddy,” she said matter-of-factly and Peter smirked, because she always sounded like she was already in university when she talked like this. All in all she was talking very well for her age, already producing sentences on her own. Sometimes it was still hard to understand her, but they got along remarkably well.  
“I’ll have some later, don’t worry.”  
“And Papa?”  
”I’ll get some, too,” Wade promised, although he was sure he wouldn’t. No need to, his skin had seen worse. And it wasn't like he could get a sunburn on his skin anyways.

Peter carefully rubbed Bea's arms and legs with sunscreen, and then had her turn to get something on her face.  
“Do you wanna go build your own sandcastle with Papa? He’ll need your help, you know,” Peter said, teasing Wade just a little to lighten the mood between them again.  
“Whaaat? No way, I’m the sandcastle pro!”  
“I help, Papa,” Bea said softly, sounding like she was trying to comfort him. Peter grinned and saw Wade’s mouth twitch.  
“I don’t need no help, Imma build you the best sandcastle you’ve ever seen!”  
“Because I help.”  
Now Peter laughed loudly and heard the Mom next to them giggle at Bea’s response. 

While Bea and Wade were off to build a massive sand castle landscape with the other kids, Peter got to talk to the woman next to them. It turned out that they were in the same hotel and she was on a trip with only the kids.  
“Just you? And those three?” Peter asked in surprise, because he knew how much of a handful one child could be. The woman, her name was Tara, just shrugged.  
“Oh, I guess the more kids you have, the more relaxed you get,” she joked and Peter smirked, although every time someone mentioned having more than one child he got reminded of his DNA still being out there somewhere.  
“So it's the last big trip with “only” three kids?” he asked, waving for Bea who said something about a dragon circling the castle.  
“Yes. The flight home is the last one I am allowed to take for a while,” she replied, patting her round belly. “Do you and your …?”  
“Husband,” Peter supplied, both of them laughing because it was nice that she didn't mind them on the one hand, and on the other was polite enough not to jump to conclusions.  
“Do you and your husband plan any more?”  
“Oh, I don't think so,” Peter lied, because it may have been the case that there were already more. “We're so happy with Bea, I think it's just gonna be the three of us.”  
“That's nice. I love that time. Just … I don't know, all the things you discover together,” Tara said, leaning back into their bag. 

 

By the time they had to get back, Peter had taken several lovely photos of Bea and Wade in the sand, building their sandcastle complete with a bridge, four watchtowers and a big tower in the middle where Bea insisted the princess was sleeping. In the end Peter’d helped them, too, snapping some family selfies with all of them and the finished castle. He was very tempted to send one to aunt May, but then again he didn't want to risk blowing their cover just for a picture.

They tried out a different restaurant for dinner this time, and it seemed like Bea had a think for smoked salmon. She pretty much devoured her serving and then had some room for desert. 

Before bedtime, Peter and Wade sat Bea down and talked to her about that whole climbing out of bed thing. She promised she wouldn't do it anymore and went to bed without fussing, clearly exhausted from the eventful day. 

 

“Daddy!” a hushed voice whispered urgently in the middle of the night and Peter turned in the bed to see Bea standing there in her pyjamas.  
“Honey, what did I tell you about getting out of your crib?” he mumbled sleepily and sat up. “What's going on, do you have to go pee pee?”  
Bea brushed a strand of hair out of her face and shook her head, looking up with big, sincere eyes.  
“No. Can I sleep in your bed? Please.”  
Peter was surprised to hear that, since they never before had any problems with Bea sleeping on her own. But from the way she was clutching her bear Peter felt there had to be something off. Also, she'd said her words very well, tried hard to pronounce every word.  
“Sure, yeah. Come over here,” Peter said, pushing his blanket aside.

Bea climbed onto the bed and over Peter, kneeing him in the stomach in the process, but the young man just winced silently. Tucked in between him and Wade, Bea hugged her bear and seemed content. 

“Daddy?” she whispered after a minute. Peter opened one eye and looked at her kindly – no matter how long she kept him awake, he’d never tire to smile.  
“Yes?”  
“Thank you,” she whispered and a tug went through Peter’s heart. He leaned over and kissed her forehead.  
“It’s alright, cutie. But why can’t you sleep in your bed?”

“I dunno ...” she mumbled, squirming around a little and looking through the dark room. Peter smiled gently, knowing Bea must’ve picked that phrase up from Wade.  
“It’s okay, let’s sleep now, honey,” Peter said and Bea nodded, but didn’t close her eyes. Instead her gaze wandered to the window every now and again.

“Daddy, the bad man. He come back?” Bea suddenly whispered and Peter looked at her again.  
“He won’t come back, cutie. You’re safe here with us,” he promised instantly, not wanting her to worry for a second of her life.

Wade had finally woken up from all the talking, groaning and turning around to look at them with just one eye open.  
“Hey ... what’s goin’ on here?” he asked, his voice soft but raspy. Bea scooted closer to him, patting his head as if wanting to make him sleep again.  
“Papa, I sleep here, please.”  
“No biggie, cutie pie. But you gotta really sleep now, ‘kay? Tomorrow’s a big day.”  
“’Kay.”  
She then snuggled up under the covers and finally closed her eyes. Wade fell asleep next to her right away, one hand still on the blanket over her stomach, keeping her safe. Peter watched them for a moment, wondering about the day and why this incident had stuck in Bea's mind. They came from a big city, where people constantly yelled and some weren't the most polite. Being in traffic with Peter, she'd heard her fair share of bad words and seen people angry.  
But it also didn't seem to be the fight Bea had a problem with. It was that man they saw.

No, it's probably nothing, Peter told himself, pushed his paranoia to the farthest corners of his mind and eventually settling down to sleep again.  
He kept a single spiderweb attached to Bea's arm, just to make sure. 

 

In the early morning hours, Peter opened his eyes and closed them right away because he knew it was too early to get up. He rolled over and carefully slid his arm around Bea, snuggling up and smirking when he felt Wade's warmth on the other side of the bed. Peter thought they should do this more often, just share a bed all together.  
Then again, maybe it should stay a special vacation thing, because it probably not that good to make that a habit.  
When Peter felt Bea move, he opened his eyes again just a bit, to see her reach out to Wade's hand. The Merc was still sleeping, curled up on his side and probably having hugged Bea close during the night. He looked peaceful, one hand on the pillow next to his chin.  
Bea slowly lifted her hand, touching one of the bumps on Wade's hand with her fingertips. The fact that Wade didn't even stir made Peter smile, because he was so comfortable around them and also Bea must be very soft with him.  
She touched the bump again, then reached out further to a bigger one. Peter was tempted to ask her what she was doing, but didn't want to break the silence. Instead, he kept watching as she placed the pads of her small fingers on the bump, which looked a bit more irritated than the rest of Wade's skin.  
The next moment, Peter blinked and thought his eyes were playing a trick on him. The bump actually grew smaller under Bea's fingers, the redness leaving as well. Bea then placed her small hand completely over Wade's and Peter was baffled to see all the bumps disappearing, leaving only the scars.  
“Bea,” he gasped and the little girl turned her head.  
“Sshh,” she hushed, placing her index finger over her lips. “Papa's sleeping.”  
“Oh, yeah … sorry,” Peter whispered back and held out his arms. Bea grinned, looking so much like Wade that it made Peter's heart ache a bit, and took the invitation. She snuggled up in Peter's embrace.

With the two of them so close, Peter took up the conversation again.  
“Bea, sweetie … what did you do? With Papa's hand?”  
“It all better.”  
“His hand?”  
“Yeah. It's ouchie.”  
Peter wondered if they ever told her about Wade's cancer or mentioned any kind of illness. Probably not, because neither of them wanted her to worry.  
“How do you know it hurts?”  
“I know. I see it,” she said, tugging at her bear's ear.  
“What does it look like?”  
“Angry. Bad. Like fire.”  
“Oh. And you put out the fire?”  
“Yeah.”  
Peter worked on that information again, turning it over and over in his head before he asked his next question.  
“Do you see that only with Papa? Or other people, too?”  
Bea thought about that for a moment, then shrugged.  
“Only Papa.”

Peter thought back to when they'd met the boy in the lab under Stark Tower. Where Bea'd said he wasn't well, that his head was sick because of the bad men that Peter knew where HYDRA. He wondered how she'd known this, but then again she was probably too young to explain to him, so he just put that one to the back of his head. 

Then he remembered that she'd also spoken of a bad man last night, and wanted to ask her about that. 

“Hey, what are you two whispering about? It's, like, super early,” Wade mumbled, interrupting them, and Bea giggled when he tugged her over underneath the blankets. Peter just scooted closer as well, so that they were all cuddled together again.  
“Hmm, that's better,” Wade sighed, his arm around Bea with his hand resting on Peter's hip. The younger man leaned over to kiss Wade, making Bea giggle. 

 

Wade leaned back under the umbrella, enjoying the breeze from the sea, the smell of sunshine and ocean. Peter was walking towards the water with Bea, who pointed to the waves. When a high one splashed all the way up to Peter's hips, she clung to him but didn't cry.  
They talked for a bit, and when Bea nodded, Peter walked further into the water. By now, Wade was sure Peter had attached some webs to Bea, keeping her safe against his side.  
Wade laughed quietly when he heard Bea squeal.

They splashed around in the salty water and dug into the wet sand, then went for a little walk down the beach to investigate what the current pushed onto the beach. Eventually Peter and Bea circled back, her little pink bucket full of treasures she'd found while exploring. 

“Had fun?” Wade asked when Bea plopped climbed onto his chair.  
“Yeah, fun!” Bea answered, happily showing what she brought. It was a pretty disgusting looking piece of seaweed but Wade pretended to be very interested.  
Peter snapped some pictures of them when they had some snacks at the beach, enjoying the super fresh fruit available on the island. 

“You know … this … this right here … might just be paradise,” Wade mentioned quietly a bit later, when Bea was sprawled out on his chest in the shade, taking her nap. She'd sleep for an hour or so and Wade was absolutely okay with just lying there and cuddling her, letting Peter feed him fruit or give him sips of coconut water.  
“It might. - I love you.”  
Wade smiled wide, closing his eyes and carefully placing a hand on Bea's back.  
“Love you, too. And that little cutie bear here, too.”  
“She looks so sweet. Can I take a pic?”  
Wade nodded, still glad that Peter asked. He only wore a t-shirt so his arms would be in full view. Not to mention his face.  
Peter took a photo and smiled when he reviewed it in the tiny camera frame.  
“This is probably my favourite photo so far.”

“How bout we make this moment just a hint more perfect?” Wade said, smiling when Peter looked at him, eyes twinkling happily.  
“How?”  
“Well, lean over and Imma show you.”  
Peter laughed again, but leaned in right away, careful not to rattle the lounger. He brushed his lips over Wade's, a feather light touch, then kissed him again, lingering this time. 

Yeah, despite the circumstances, this vacation might just be one of the most perfect they'd ever had, Peter thought, while his lips brushed Wade's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr! :D
> 
> If you like, [ follow me ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/) for writing, art and random Marvel stuff <3


	48. Chapter 48

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D  
> Back again with a new chap for you, hope you like it!
> 
> Enjoy <3

During the last twenty or so minutes of Bea's nap, Wade's eyes drifted close slowly and he was asleep when Peter looked up from his book again a moment later. They were so beautiful together that Peter sneakily took another picture before flipping a page in his book again. 

When Bea woke up, they let her play in the sand for a while, just to really wake up, before going back into town for some ice cream. They took a guided tour around the island that afternoon, circling around until they came back to the hotel. 

“So, any wishes for dinner?” Wade asked while they were walking, flipping through a brochure he'd gotten at their hotel, telling them all about the restaurants nearby.   
“Fren' Fry!” Bea said and Peter raised and eyebrow at Wade, who just looked as innocent as ever.  
“She can't possibly have that from me. Must be some kind of new cool thing the kids say,” he mumbled and grinned when Peter laughed. They did get to a Burger place then, because they just couldn't deny their girl a wish. And aside from climbing out of her bed twice, she had been a little angel, all polite and cute. 

When it was time for Bea to go to sleep, Wade and Peter got around to talking to her about the masks. Wade showed her the white and pink outfit he’d made, her small hands touching the fabric. Peter held her in his lap as usual, and could see her brows furrowing.   
“This is your costume. So you can be a super cool hero like Daddy,” he said, and Peter looked at his lover briefly, wanting him to understand that he was a hero as well. Different, but not any less brave or strong.   
“For me?” Bea asked quietly, leaning into Peter’s chest. She looked at the shirt for a while, eventually taking it and holding it tight.   
“Yeah, it’s for you. Now we all have a cool mask.”  
Peter took over then, reaching around Bea to brush his hand over the white and pink fabric.   
“My love, sometimes we ... have to put a mask on, you know. To help people.”  
“Yeah. Like a hero,” she said quietly, sounding so much more mature when she talked like this. Peter smiled, proud of their smart girl.  
”That’s right. So, next time, when Papa or I put on out mask, and help people ... we want you to put your mask on, okay?”  
“I help, too?” she asked right away, turning to look up at Peter.   
“Sure, you’ll help us so much. We put on the masks and be so very brave, okay?”  
“Yes,” Bea replied, leaning back again calmly. “Bea’s brave. Pwomise.”  
Peter’s heart hurt at that, and he saw Wade smile whistfully, almost sad, before he leaned in and kissed her.

 

The next day was a bit rainy, so they opted to stay inside and do some work – Wade checked in with Matt, who he'd left in charge of the house while they were on vacation, and Peter looked into his lab stuff. Bea slept only about an hour before lunch, so they would just wait until she woke up.

While Peter was logging onto his secure connection to the Team, Wade put Bea down for a nap in their big bed, her teddy bear tucked in by her side. When he came back, Peter was leaning forward, elbows on his knees, staring at the screen full of text. 

“What happened?” Wade whispered, quickly closing the door to their bedroom and putting the baby monitor on the coffee table. He had closed and locked the door to their little balcony and turned on the AC instead, just because he got more paranoid the longer they were hiding.   
“The mission,” Peter began, his eyes frantically scanning the text on the screen.   
“What, what?” Wade urged him, stepping up close to peek over his shoulder.   
“It was a success.”  
“Oh, thank god,” Wade mumbled, dropping down onto the sofa. “Does that mean we can go home, soon?”  
“Yeah, we'll just stay the planned week and then we can come back. Apparently they also   
caught some kind of transporting vehicle with some women inside that were meant for another base. So there's enough to do and we can stay out of the way.”  
“Cool, cool. Aw, man, now we can really enjoy the vacation,” Wade sighed, sinking deeper into the cushions of the sofa.   
“Does that mean that you didn't before?” Peter teased, closing the laptop and turning so that he could smirk at his lover.   
“You know what I mean,” Wade grinned and patted his lap. “How 'bout you gimme some of that booty now that we don't have to be on the lookout all the time?”   
“Here? Now?” Peter asked with a grin, nevertheless getting up right away to straddle Wade's legs and lean down to kiss him.   
“Mmmh, maybe in that nice big bathroom?”  
They shared one long look into each other’s eyes, then Peter’s mouth curved into a smile.

They let just a bit of water into the tub, just enough to tease them and wouldn't splash onto the floor. The baby monitor was sitting on the sink, letting them know if Bea needed anything. 

Without hurry, they stripped and got into the tub, relaxing into the hot water. Peter got into the tub first, reaching one hand out to Wade, who gingerly took his lover’s fingers into his own, letting his rough hand slide over Peter’s wrist, up to his elbow, then his shoulder. He grinned when the younger man shuddered, his beautiful eyes darkening and a delicious blush appearing on his cheeks.  
“Gonna make some room for me?” Wade asked, raising one hairless eyebrow at Peter. The younger man grinned, looking absolutely stunning, and Wade was sure his heart stopped for a moment when Peter just spread his legs for him, unashamed and all the while staring back at Wade.   
“Enough room?” Peter teased, his voice dark and so, so sexy. Wade gulped and nodded.   
“Just about ... gonna be a tight fit.”  
Peter’s head dipped back slightly as he laughed, watching while Wade got into the tub between his legs. He bit his lip when Wade gripped his hips, just underneath the waterline, and pulled Peter into his lap.   
“Like what you see?” Wade asked,   
“You know I do,” the younger man purred, lifting his right leg until his knee touched the back of Wade's shoulder and he could pull Wade in.   
“Mmmh, I sure like that carefree vacation thing,” Wade mumbled, kissing Peter's lips again and again. “We should do that again.”  
“I'd like that,” Peter replied, smirking when Wade teased him, leaning back every now and then so that Peter had to chase his lover's lips. They laughed together, quiet and hushed, until their laughs evolved into gasps and sighs. 

“Turn around for me?” Wade eventually asked, his voice rougher and slightly out of breath. He reached out for his pants laying in a heap next to the tub, and fished a few packets of lube out of one of the pockets.   
“Did you prepare this?” Peter asked in amusement while he watched Wade tearing the packet open and slicking up his fingers.   
“Maybe. Maybe I'm just always prepared. Can't waste a perfectly fine opportunity to get a bit of that booty, can I?”  
“No, that'd be a shame.”  
Peter grinned at Wade's dark laugh, all relaxed happiness. He felt the Merc's rough finger probe him then, and shuddered. They both knew they just had a limited time, so there was no need to hold back or draw anything out. 

Peter moaned when Wade pushed the second finger into him roughly, letting him feel the stretch. It wasn't painful, just enough to send his body into shivers and let his head drop down onto his arms that were folded on the edge of the tub.   
“What a view,” Wade commented from behind him, maybe referring to Peter, maybe referring to the actual view outside the massive windows. They could see the beach in the far distance, the water swaying back and forth on the white sand.   
“Does that feel good? Me taking you in front of that window? For everyone to see?”   
Peter shivered at his lover’s words, but they both knew that nobody could see in. They had actually taken a walk around the hotel and made sure that this was true. That didn’t mean that the mental image was any less arousing. 

Wade gave him another finger then, teasing him for so long but always leaving him on the edge, so close to just coming from his lover's fingers alone. When Peter was a whining mess, Wade took pity with him and reached next to the tub for some more lube.   
“Show me that sweet ass of yours … yeah, like that. You're so gorgeous,” Wade mumbled as he slicked himself up, his heated gaze on Peter's naked body, bent over the edge of the tub, opened up and ready for him.   
“I love you,” Peter just sighed, sounding so desperate that Wade slid behind him right away, eager to give his favourite spider what he needed.   
“Ready?”  
All Peter could do was nod, his lips pressed together to keep from shouting. Wade lined up and slid in in one swift motion, knocking all the air out of Peter's lungs. His blood felt like it was boiling as it shot through his veins, his racing heart pumping fast.   
“Please,” the younger man whimpered, gasping again when Wade wasted no time and began thrusting into his body. 

 

“Aah … oh … hurry …” Peter managed when he was just about able to think again, his grip on the edge of the tub slipping, so he had to lean his head onto his folded arms. Wade sighed out a moan, languid and clearly enjoying himself.   
“Could do this all day,” he whispered, gripping Peter's hips harder and pulled almost all the way out. He granted Peter a few breaths' time, which the younger man used to turn his head to the side, looking out of the massive windows and pressing his lips to his upper arm. 

Peter gasped, his body shaking when Wade pushed in again. He ground his hips against Peter’s, then, making the younger man groan at the pressure.   
“No more, no more,” Peter begged, voice hoarse and just barely keeping himself from shouting.   
“You can take it,” Wade growled, holding Peter close, so close that neither of them could tell where one body ended and the other began. He nudged Peter's prostate again and again, unrelenting, not listening to Peter's whispered begging.  
“Too much … can't … can't ...” he sobbed, so close that Peter was sure he'd just shatter into a million pieces anytime now.   
“You can. For me … come one, show me how good you take it,” Wade said, his breath ghosting over Peter's sweat slick skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake. 

It took both of them one more carefully angled thrust and Peter grabbed the edge of the tub like a lifeline, while Wade's arms slid around his upper body, pressing them as close together as possible. They both came almost silently, hit too hard and too sudden. 

They slumped into the tub together, breathing heavily and for a moment not caring about the cooling water splashing around them. Peter was just about to suggest a nice hot shower for them – to really get clean – when Bea started talking over the baby monitor.   
“Welp, and that’s that,” Wade said quietly, sounding just a little sad. He carefully eased out of Peter’s body, patting his hips. 

“You take your time, Imma go take care of the little one,” Wade said, his voice still dark and sated, brushing a kiss to Peter’s neck before climbing out of the tub. The younger man just sighed, wishing they’d have some more time for their lovemaking, or in general more time for just the two of them.   
Maybe once when this was all over, when they didn’t have to worry about Hydra anymore. 

Sighing, Peter forced himself to sit up, a bit shaky but aching in all the right places. He drained the water from the tub and quickly jumped into the shower to clean up. When he came out of the bathroom wrapped in the fluff hotel robe, Bea came running over, a big smile on her face.   
“Papa make snack!” she said, bouncing up and down. Peter took her little hand when she led him over to the kitchen, where Wade cut up some fruit.  
“Wow, that looks super yummy. How nice of Papa,” Peter said, leaning in to kiss Wade’s cheek, making the older man grin.   
“Right? I’m great. I thought we could take a walk before lunch. Get little miss energizer there to move around.”  
“Good idea. I’ll go put some clothes on.”  
“How even dare you!” Wade joked, which Peter just rewarded with a laugh. 

It was a good thing Peter had packed a disposable rain poncho for Bea, just in case. It took up almost no space in their suitcase and she was able to enjoy their walk. There were barely any people on the market, most of the other tourists opting for some indoor activities.   
Peter was glad that Bea didn’t seem to mind the rain and it was still pretty warm, so they went shopping for some more fruit. Surprisingly, ever since they got to the island, Bea had barely had any candy, but she was going through so much fresh fruit and vegetables.

 

Since they hadn’t tried it, yet, Peter and Wade decided to have lunch at the hotel restaurant. It was a nice place, bright colors and lots of space. The menu was surprisingly large and if it was any like the breakfast, they wouldn’t be disappointed.   
“Look, I dwaw ... it’s flower,”  
“A flower, yes. Very good,” Peter said, leaning over to Bea’s high chair, where she was happily scribbling on a piece of paper while they waited for the food. Tonight there were a lot of people around them, so it was a bit noisier then usual, but not too much.   
“I read there’s a place that has those massive butterflies on the other end of the island, wanna check it out tomorrow?” Wade said, taking a sip from his beer – Peter had to more or less forced him to allow himself a drink just this once. They would be together for the rest of the day, so there was really nothing to worry about.   
“Yes!” Bea said, and began drawing some big butterflies.   
“We can take some fruit and snacks and have a picnic,” Peter added, since it’d probably be easy to find a beach or park around where they could sit.   
“That’s-“

A loud bang interrupted their conversation and all around. Peter noticed only a fraction of a second later that this had indeed been a shot. He looked to where he guessed it came from, but he couldn’t find anybody with a gun. When he looked back to Wade, Peter’s eyes widened. 

Wade’s upper body dropped onto the table from the impact of the bullet. Dark red blood soaked through his shirt in an instant and chaos broke loose.  
People started crying, shouting, glasses and plates shattered onto the ground as more shots sounded. Bea stared with big round eyes and her mouth open, the crayon having fallen from her hand onto the table.   
“Go!” Wade yelled, blood dripping from his lips when he grabbed Bea and all but threw her into Peter’s arms. 

Peter jumped up and behind the table, Bea tucked safely in his arm. She cried now, screamed, actually, tears streaming down her face when Peter sat her down. He quickly checked her over, but she wasn’t hurt at all, just scared. He slid over the floor and behind the bar, where they would have some safety from the bullets.   
Another round of shots went off way too close and adrenalin began rushing through Peter’s blood. He could see the diaper bag still underneath their breakfast table, and quickly webbed it over.   
“Bea, my love, please listen to Daddy,” he whispered urgently into her ear, one hand on her cheek, one rummaging through the diaper bag. She looked up, her blue eyes big and shimmering with tears. Her lower lip quivered and she held onto Peter’s wrist urgently.   
“It’s gonna be okay baby. I promise. – Now listen to me. We need to put on those masks, okay? You remember I told you about them?”  
Bea sniffled, whimpering when more shots were fired.  
“I’ll put on the mask and then we go to Papa so, so fast, okay?”  
Bea nodded, and even held her hands out when Peter pulled both of their masks out. He pulled her shirt off and tossed it into the bag, then put the white shirt and mask over her head.   
“Is this okay, can you see Daddy?” he asked as gentle as possible, pulling on his own mask.   
Bea nodded again, reaching up.   
Peter quickly ripped off his own shirt, pulling the t-shirt version of his costume on that Wade had made for him. He webbed Bea to his chest, holding her close and getting ready to jump.   
“Spidey!” Wade’s voice boomed over the shooting.   
“Papa!” Bea cried, then wailed when Peter jumped up and onto the ceiling.  
“Ssh, baby, please don’t cry. We’re almost there,” Peter said, crawling over the ceiling and dodging the bullets as best as he could. 

Peter had almost reached the porch that lead to the park behind the hotel when a bullet crashed into the wall, after going right through his upper arm. Peter bit back a groan, his hold on the ceiling momentarily slipping.   
He heard Bea gasp and suddenly she was silent, uttering not a single sound when Peter had to let go of the ceiling and drop down, just about dodging a bullet that was about to hit his right leg.   
“Come on over!” Wade shouted from the right, so Peter ran. His heart raced, but not from exertion, more from the panic of having Bea in a situation like this.   
“Papa!” she wailed again, sobbing into Peter’s chest.   
“Almost there,” the hero gasped, what felt like pure adrenalin pumping through his veins instead of blood. 

Then, finally, Peter saw Wade, bloodsoaked and dangerous, a gun in his hand that he must have stolen, ducked into a shady corner. By now the rain had almost stopped, but every surface outside was dripping wet.  
“Get up high, there’s at least two more!” Wade shouted and pointed to a handful of trees nearby. Peter reacted right away, shooting a web and pulling himself and Bea up, wonderng for a moment whether or not the hotel roof was secure. Probably not. Not now, anyway.   
He wanted to fight, to make those people pay for the things Bea had to see. She was still quietly crying on Peter’s shoulder.   
But now his first priority was protecting her.

Once they were up high enough and Peter found a good branch to perch on, he looked around, trying to spot someone suspicious. There were barely any people around, so it was fruitless to search for anybody.   
Next Peter tried to get a look inside the restaurant to find their diaper bag. In the heat of the moment he’d forgotten all about it, but they needed it back. He looked again, making sure there was nobody around, and tried to shoot a web at it to haul it over.   
Unfortunately there was a chair lying on the floor where the web stuck to, and Peter sighed as he had to let it go.   
“Bag?” Bea whispered and wiped her nose with the back of her hand when Peter looked down. He carefully took off her mask with one hand, nobody was looking up in the trees for them anyway.   
“Yeah, I’ll try and get it,” Peter replied, kissing Bea’s forehead. She watched him try and fail two more times, then her little hand reached out. Peter wondered what she was doing when the bag began floating inside the empty restaurant.   
“Daddy, get bag,” she whispered, as if they were sharing a little secret. Peter stretched out one hand and shot a web at the bag, pulling it in and catching it quickly.  
“Thank you so much for helping me, baby. You’re such a brave girl,” Peter said, kissing Bea’s head again. She nodded, looking down at her hand.  
“I ... make bag fly ... sorry.”  
It took Peter a moment to realize that she wanted to apologize for using her powers, something that she wasn’t supposed to do outside of their home, and never without permission from Peter or Wade.   
“No, no baby, it was very good. I know I said you shouldn’t use your powers, but that was very good. You helped, that was a good thing. Thank you.”  
“Okay,” she just said, leaning into Peter’s embrace. 

Peter fished his cellphone out of the bag – he ususally kept it in there because he didn’t want to use it that much around Bea, and a diaper bag was pretty safe from thieves. He activated a secure connection, hoping that the satellites surpressing his signal still worked and nobody had figured out how to turn the service off.   
A muffled voice answered and Peter noticed only after a moment that it was Preston, probably alone at the lab again. Well, the others were probably occupied with the aftermath of the latest successfull mission.   
“We gotta leave, there’s been a shooting at the hotel,” Peter said into the phone urgently, his crying daughter still tucked to his chest.   
_”Peter? Where are you now?”_  
“Hiding near the hotel while Wade gets our stuff out of the room.”  
 _”We can be there in an hour, I’ll send you a jet coordinates as soon as I know where we can land. Hang in there.”_  
Peter hung up and sighed, leaning against the tree. 

Back at the hotel, not teeming with police and some guys in back suits, Wade went in through the fire exit on the roof, going directly to their room.   
He just packed one suitcase with their most important things – Bea’s bear, for example, some clothes, Peter’s laptop and his camera – leaving behind a few items of clothing and the spare suitcase. It wasn’t important. Nothing was really important anymore except getting his family safe. Wade had stolen a gun from one of the attackers, it was now stuck to his belt, hidden by his wide shirt.   
Shit, the shirt.  
Wade quickly pulled off the bloodsoaked fabric and took one he’d have left behind, quickly putting it on. 

He was in the lobby within a few minutes and stopped short when he heard a woman crying. That wasn’t something unusual after a shooting in a high security hotel, but it was the voice that made Wade stop.   
Tara – the mom they’d met on the beach – who talked on the phone, sobbing and bearthing harshly. Her free hand held onto her round stomach and the two boys and the girl sat around her with big, frightened eyes and pale faces.   
Wade sighed, put down their suitcase, and dialed Peter’s number.   
_”We’ve got a jet coming in in about an hour,”_ the hero answered, and Wade hoped he and Bea were still up high in that tree, out of reach and safe.   
“Good, we’re gonna take some guests,” Wade said, not waiting for Peter to react to that. “I just met Tara – you know that mom from the beach with the three kids? – she looks like she’d rather cut their vacation short, too.”  
Peter was silent for a long moment, maybe contemplating saying no, but knowing all too well how excruitiatingly painful it was to have a child in a dangerous situation and being unable to do something about it.   
_”Alright. I’ll deal with it,”_

Ending the call, Wade walked straight up to the kids.   
“C’mon, we’re gonna go home,” Wade said, reaching down to take the little girl’s hand. She held onto him, maybe because she remembered him from the beach, maybe because she, too, wanted someone strong looking by her side.   
“What?” Tara asked, wiping her nose and sniffling quietly.  
“We’ve got some friends picking us up in an hour. We’re gonna take you back to the mainland if you want.”  
“Oh, I ... oh,” she sighed and more tears followed, making Wade feeling a little uneasy. “Thank you.”  
“Of course. Now, let’s get going,” he said and she nodded, taking her suitcase to pull it with them. The two older boys pushed the other suitcase and then they went.

Actually, Wade didn’t know where they were going, but he figured a jet, even when hovering just for them to board quickly, would need some space. And the biggest open space he could think of was the beach, so that’s where Wade was headed.   
And even if the jet wouldn’t come there, it was a good spot to wait, not that many hiding spots if there were more Hydra agents on the island.   
“So, you are a soldier? I ... I didn’t want to assume anything, but ...” Tara said, waddling next to Wade, the boys in front of them. Lindy, the little girl, was sitting on the suitcase the boys pulled together.   
“Well, kind of. It’s a long story, but I guess it comes in handy now. We’re mainly here because of Peter’s work.”  
She nodded, knowing that there weren’t many questions to be asked about some people’s work. Tara wiped her cheeks again, seeming a little more collected now which Wade was glad for . He didn’t want her to stress out too much.   
“My ... my husband, he’s currently on a mission. The kids and I were on this last vacation before they got back to school and we’d be with the new baby.”  
“Sorry it got cut so short,” Wade mumbled, hoping she could somehow reach her husband and tell him not to worry. No doubt the attack on the hotel would travel through the intelligence community quickly.   
“I’m just happy we’re all okay,” she said, sighing and briefly touching her belly. 

Wade had heard some rustling in the trees not far from them, and sure enough a moment later Peter and Bea appeared from the edge of the park, waiting for them on the way to the beach.   
“Papa!” Bea cried, her little face red from crying. Peter was carrying their diaper bag, so he must’ve put their masks back in there so nobody could see. Wade was glad Peter had gotten a hold of their bag, because their phones were still in there. 

“Hey, my love. How about a big hug?”  
Bea’s lip quivered and she sobbed, crying in a way that made Wade’s heart break just a bit. He hugged her close, kissed her head and told her he was all okay again.   
“Really?”  
“Really. See, all good,” Wade said and pulled his shirt to the side just a bit to show her that there was no blood. “You know Papa’s a strong guy, don’t you? I’m all fine.”  
“Okay.”  
Bea leaned into Wade’s chest, putting a thumb into her mouth to soothe herself.   
“I brought your mister bear. Wanna give him a big hug, too?” Wade proposed, holding out the stuffed bear. Bea sniffled and took it, hugging it close before leaning into Wade’s chest again. He quickly wiped her nose with the back of his hand, smirking when he saw her little nose furrow. Peter stepped up, hugging both of them tight and brushing a quick kiss to Wade’s cheek. 

It was only a short walk to the beach and Wade parked all their luggage on a wooden walkway so they wouldn’t have to drag it through the sand.   
Peter greeted Tara and the kids and they quickly got to talk a bit, while Wade looked around, scanning the environment for threats. He liked to think he had taken out every last one of their attackers, but he might have been wrong. One way or another, Wade wouldn’t take risks. 

Thankfully the jet materialized over the beach just moments later and they were all ushered inside. Within seconds, they were buckled into their seats and the stealth mode activated, the jet shooting off unseen. 

Stark had made sure to send them an unmarked jet, so whoever saw it wouldn’t have a clue whether it was the FBI, CIA, SHIELD or some other covert organization having some people here for vacation. An undercover S.I. team would stay on the island and investigate, find out how the attackers came there and who they were working with.   
Tara got a satellite phone and eventually got through to her husband, who seemed to be deployed somewhere more rural. 

An S.I. agent dressed in all black combat gear came over to hand them each a headset and one tablet, a video connection to the lab already made. Phillip, the profiler in Peter’s lab team, greeted them with a brief nod. He looked tired.   
“Hi,” Peter said quietly, holding the device up so they were both in frame. Bea was strapped into a booster seat next to Wade, holding his hand at all times.   
_”Do you think it was Hydra?_ he asked right away, and Peter wondered where everybody was and what they were doing, because the lab behind Phillip looked empty. Maybe there was just so much to do that they were all elsewhere. Peter wished he could help them. 

“No, it ... I think it was aimed at us,” Wade said quietly into his microphone, showing a handful of bullets from his pants pocket. It was just one big one, just like the one Peter had taken out of Wade’s back all those months ago when they were first attacked at the park. The others were smaller, normal calibre if Peter had to guess.   
“This one was the only one that calibre shot at only me. They knew it would take some to shut me up.”  
Peter stared at the assortment of bullets, hatred boiling up inside him. Those people still wouldn’t give up ... he would make them stop. One way or another.


	49. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with another chap! :D Hope you guys have a great week, enjoy reading <3

“So, you’re with SHIELD, too?” Tara asked quietly when they all got off the plane on a private airfield. Not far from them, another jet with the telltale SHIELD symbol on the side waited for Tara and her kids to board.   
“Uh, no. – Well, not anymore. We’re with S.I. So I guess the SHIELD jet is just for you.”  
She laughed softly, a blush creeping up on her cheeks.   
“Please don’t tell anybody that I just outed my husband’s employer.”  
“Ah, I won’t,” Peter promised with a grin. “In exchange for maybe a playdate?”   
Tara laughed, nodding right away. “Definitely. It’s hard enough to find nice parents to get together with, let alone some with whom you can talk a bit more freely. Here,” she said and held out her phone, showing a number. Peter typed it in his phone and thanked Tara, watching her board the plane with her kids before catching up to Bea and Wade.   
“Daddy! Daddy, bad men!” Bea said, still in distress from the ride home and what happened before that. Her little hand reached out to Peter, but she wanted to be held by Wade, safe in his arms. Peter took her hand in his, walking next to her and Wade.   
”There are no bad men anymore, baby. It’s all good now, don’t worry. You excited to get home and play?”  
“Yeah,” Bea said, but didn’t sound very excited, really. “Nanna May?”  
“We can call her. She’s still on vacation with her friends. She’ll be happy to hear you.”  
“Or we could try and skype her so you could see her,” Wade proposed, and Bea nodded, leaning into his shoulder.   
“See Nanna,” she said, sounding whiny again. 

A car waited for them at the other end of the airfield, next to a small private terminal. They got in and Peter immediately felt better when the steel enforced doors with the bulletproof glass windows closed behind them. There was even a car seat for Bea, but she cried again when they buckled her in and only calmed down when she held both Peter and Wade's hand in each of hers. She didn't sleep, hadn't since her nap this morning, which now seemed weeks ago. Peter suppressed a sigh when he thought about what she'd seen, what she no doubt remembered. Maybe other kids her age would forget, certainly over time, but Bea probably wouldn't.   
From what she'd told him that morning in bed – that she could see Wade's pain, but only his – seeing him get shot must have been so much scarier.   
“Are you hungry, baby? Do you want a snack?” Peter asked, leaning against Bea's carseat.   
“No,” she said quietly, holding onto both their hands still. “Home, Daddy,” she whispered then and it broke Peter's heart. He looked over and saw Wade staring out the window, his lips pressed together tightly. His eyes looked wet.  
“We'll be home soon, baby,” Peter promised, kissing her head. She looked over to Wade, who was still staring out of the window, then back to Peter.   
“Owie,” she said, her voice still so very quiet and tired. She looked to the bandage around Peter’s arm where the bullet had hit him. There had been a medic on board the plan who’d taken care of the wound, and by now it was already healing. Only the burning as the muscle grew back was a bit annoying.   
“It’s all better now, no big owie.”  
She watched him very closely then, as if she was trying to figure out whether or not he lied. Then Bea let go of Peter’s hand to tenderly touch the bandage.   
“It’s owie,” she whispered when she pressed her small hand against the wound, a burning sensation spreading through Peter’s arm. He didn’t know what to say, so he just stared when she concentrated on her hand, and suddenly all the pain just vanished.  
“Better?” she asked, and now Wade looked over, his eyebrows drawn together. Peter didn’t want him to worry about Bea, about how much she really understood of the attack, so Peter smiled and nodded.   
“Yes, you made the owie all better. Thank you, baby,” he said, as if she’d just kissed a boo boo for him and not just used some kind of power on him.   
Bea nodded, leaning back into her seat. Her lids drooped and she yawned when Peter took a hold of her hand again.   
“Try to sleep a bit, my love. We’re here with you, don’t worry,” Peter whispered into her ear and kissed her head.   
“Okay,” Bea said, her eyes already closing. Whatever she did must’ve cost her a lot of energy.

A few minutes later she was fast asleep, her hold on their hands slowly slipping. Peter carefully freed his hand and took out his phone to send a message to aunt May. He made sure to encrypt it on the way to her, so when she received it, it would look like any other text, but it wouldn’t be traceable.   
“What are you writing her?” Wade asked quietly, knowing that Peter would have to inform her.   
“An electrical failure at the hotel. We got an earlier flight and decided to get home instead of getting a different hotel.”  
“Good. Tell her we’ll pick her up when she gets home.”  
“I will.”  
Both of them fell silent again while Peter typed, saving a memo into his phone to make sure and air out May’s house and clean up a bit before she got back. Wouldn’t be too nice to have her come back into a dusty house. 

The driver took a few detours just to make sure, but brought them home eventually. Peter knew he had to be at the lab the next day, and dreaded leaving Bea and Wade, but he had to get back to working on the nest mission, maybe the last.   
“You’ll have security around for the rest of the week, if you need to, push the panic button on your phone,” the driver said briskly, in a tone only military men had. Peter just nodded, lifting the now sleeping Bea into his arms while Wade unlocked the door. 

They rode the elevator up in silence and wandered into the apartment a moment later. The air in the rooms was stale and the surfaces slightly dusty, but neither of them worried about that now. Wade ran into the bathroom and got fresh sheets for Bea out of the closet.   
While he put everything in her crib, Peter dressed Bea in a nighty and wiped her face and hands with a wet wipe. She stirred and mumbled something, but was too tired to stay awake even long enough for Peter to wish her a good night. 

They cleaned the kitchen and the dinner table quickly, still barely talking, and Peter prepared them a snack while Wade cleaned the bathroom. They’d arrived back home in the evening and by the time they met up again in the bedroom it was the middle of the night.

“I have to tell you something,” Peter began quietly, his hair still wet from the shower. There was a fresh white bandage around his arm. Wade, coming from the bathroom just this moment, closed the door slowly. There was a plate with snacks and two glasses of wine on the bedside table.   
”That sounds a lot more serious than I’d like,” the Merc said, taking off his bathrobe to exchange it with a pair of shorts before climbing into bed.   
“Well, maybe it is. But you have to know,” Peter replied calmly, leaning into Wade’s hold a moment later. He offered Wade a glass of wine and the older man took it, sipping the red liquid.   
”You know ... that you told me you felt a lot better with Bea around, right?”  
“Yup. – Wait, do you mean head-wise? Or physically? ‘Cause I think it’s both.”  
“I think so, too. I ... one morning, you were still sleeping ... Bea did something.”  
“To me?” Wade asked in surprise, looking down at Peter, who nodded.  
“Yeah.”  
“What did she do?”  
“She ... she saw that your hand was swollen,” Peter explained, carefully lifting Wade’s hand, his thumb caressing one of the cancer bumps that had formed just under his thumb and would soon be gone, appearing again in another place. Always on the move due to his healing factor.   
“And she put her hand on yours and ... the swelling just went away completely. Just the scars were left.”  
“You think she did that? Like, on purpose?”  
“She told me she did. That she saw it was hurting you and she made it all better,” Peter explained, thinking back to that morning on Hawaii, when Bea had climbed into bed with them. He turned around, looking at the baby monitor and seeing Bea in her own bed, longing to hold her.   
“Wow ... do you think ... she can heal? Other people?”  
“She said she can only do that with you. But then again she did take the pain out of my arm on the drive home. I don’t think she knows or understands all of her powers herself.”  
Wade hummed, sipping wine again and Peter let him muse over what he’d just said.   
“Wait, wait!” he suddenly gasped, letting the glass sink. “You said she said she can see ... my pain? Petey, then what did she see when those dickbags shot me?”  
Peter looked up, meeting his lover’s gaze.   
“I don’t know. She ... she said it looks like fire. Like something bad. I ... I’m just really glad that she doesn’t seem to have nightmares.”  
Wade sighed out a breath, leaning heavily into his pillow as he looked over at the monitor as well.   
“Yeah.”

“Petey ... I’m very angry.”  
”I know. Me, too.”  
Again, silence.   
“I will hurt them for making her see this. Every single one,” Wade growled, his voice low but not less threatening.   
“Yes,” Peter just said, simply allowing it, because his patience was long gone. He wasn’t there for taking prisoners anymore. He wanted revenge. For all the things his daughter and all the other innocent children had to suffer through. 

“C’mon, let’s forget those things for a while,” Wade proposed, kissing Peter’s temple. “Let’s get some sleep, feels like we’ve been up forever.”  
“It does,” Peter sighed, turning the volume on the baby monitor all the way up so they’d hear Bea crying right away. He was beyond tired, his arm hurting again, and the events of the day finally catching up.   
Wade turned off the lights and Peter snuggled close under the covers, resting his injured arm on his lover’s chest, feeling a steady, calming heartbeat under his fingertips. 

 

Bea seemed happy the next morning, albeit not too talkative. She requested cereal for breakfast so she got that, along with a bowl of fruit salad.   
“Want Mango,” she said between bites, looking into her bowl of banana and strawberries.   
“We’re gonna get some today, we got lotsa shopping to do, you and me,” Wade said, already typing a shopping list on his phone.   
“We go?” she asked, looking over to where Peter was just packing his computer and a paper notebook into his briefcase. “Daddy ... you go?”  
“Yes, I have to go to work. I’ll meet you and Papa at Aunty May’s house today.”

Peter really tried to make quick work of packing his things for work, even had his shoes on already. But Bea still had enough time to notice him leaving, of course she would.   
“Daddy ... no, Daddy not go! No!” she shouted and then straight up started to wail and cry, wiping her empty cereal bowl from the table.   
“Bea,” Wade said, sorrow on his face at her high pitched screams, at seeing tears streaming down her face. He took her out of the high chair because she was close to kicking the table.   
”No, Daddy, no, no!” she cried, throwing a full on tantrum now, and her spoon started to levitate from the table   
“Bea!” Peter said now, louder to get through her screams. Wade still held her and she struggled, flailed her arms and kicked her legs, until Peter put both of his hands on the side of her face. “Bea, listen to Daddy,” he said and began humming her song, the one that would get her to stop. After a few beats Wade hummed with him, and Bea calmed down.   
She still sobbed and breathed heavily, still tears dripping onto Peter’s fingers.   
“My love, listen to me. Listen to Daddy.”  
She looked up then, her bottom lip quivering, and Wade eventually sat down on the floor with her, Peter following them. All three of them on the floor now, Peter took both of Bea’s hands into his.   
”You don’t have to cry, my love. Daddy’s just gonna go to work,” Peter explained softly, gently placing a finger onto Bea’s lips when she opened her mouth to argue. “No, listen, please. I’ll come back to you and Papa soon. But I have to go now. Remember that we help people?”  
“Yes,” she said quietly, sniffling and rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. She looked pouty, but didn’t cry anymore.   
“Look, baby, I know you are afraid. We are, too. But we still have to help people,” Peter said, feeling unbearably said that he had to say something like this to Bea. He saw it in Wade’s eyes, too.   
She shouldn’t have to hear that, shouldn’t have to live with the truth that being a hero sometimes meant going beyond your own fears, so far beyond that you’d rather run away forever and hide in the darkest corner you could find.   
“Daddy ...,” Bea said, looking up to Wade for a moment and then to Peter. “I’m scared.”  
Wade bowed his head over Bea’s, kissing her hair.   
“We’ll keep you safe, baby. We always will.”  
“Always,” Peter agreed, leaning in and kissing Bea’s cheek. “And we’ll always come back to you. – Now,” he began, before the lump in his throat got any bigger and he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. “I will go to work and help people, okay? And are you gonna be a good girl?”  
“Yes,” Bea eventually said quietly, wiping her nose once more. “I’m sowwy.”  
“It's okay, we're all afraid sometimes. Just tell us next time, okay?”  
“Yeah.”  
Peter leaned in and hugged Bea, wanted to stay with her like nothing else, but he had to get back to the lab for at least some hours today, to catch up on the results of the last mission. Also, he was afraid that if he wasn’t leaving soon he never would, opting to stay with Bea and Wade instead.   
“See you in the afternoon. I’ll try to get back soon,” Peter said quietly to Wade, leaning over to kiss him.   
“Don’t you worry about us, we’ll be fine. Come back safe.”  
“I will.”

 

The trip to the lab was short, but it felt like forever. Peter tried to be as alert as possible, have his eyes everywhere, even though he knew he had security follow him. He relaxed a little once he was at the Tower, only to then find himself right in the middle of the pure chaos that was the massive amount of data flowing into the lab.

 

“Are you feeling a bit better?” Wade asked back at home, still on the floor with Bea. She nodded, leaning against his chest. “You know,” he began, lifting her up and putting her onto her own feet. “I’m scared, too. But Daddy’s really strong. He’ll be fine, he’ll come back soon. And we will be together all day today, so that’s good, right?”  
“Yeah,” Bea said, pulling a face when Wade wiped her nose with a napkin from the table.   
”We don’t need to cry, baby. We’re together so everything’s good.”  
“Yeah.”  
“C’mon, pick up your bowl and then we’ll get you a nice bath,” Wade said, already getting up to wipe down the table. Bea picked up her bowl and the spoon she’d thrown off the table and even wiped the mlk droplets from the floor with a paper towel. 

Wade tried his best to distract her from thinking about what had happened the night before, loading the bathtub with toys and lots of bubbles in the water, and singing some princess songs with her while he washed her.   
After fresh clothes for both of them – Wade’s shirt had gotten absolutely soaked in the bubble bath – they went out for their big shopping trip. 

“We buy yummy food,” Bea said from the backseat, where she played with her bear. The toy would probably stay in the car – Wade wouldn’t dare risk losing it.  
“Sure will, little Bea. Hey, do you have any wishes for dinner?”  
“Ce’al!”   
“Silly bear, we can’t have cereal for dinner!” Wade teased and grinned at Bea’s laugh. Ever since she’d understood what a joke was, she tried them herself, which was hilarious.  
“But seriously, what should we cook tonight?”  
“Hmmm,” Bea hummed, wiggling her bear around. Wade smirked, turning towards the supermarked and looking out for a free parking spot. “I want noodles.”  
“We can make noodles, no problem. With tomato sauce? Or cheese?”  
“Yes!”  
Wade laughed, agreeing that they would have tomato sauce and cheese to their pasta.   
“Make Salad, too,” Bea said and looked outside to the people on the parking lot while Wade maneuvered the car into a vacant space.   
“Yeah, we will make a salad, Daddy likes that.”  
“I help.”  
“Of course, you’re my best cooking helper!”  
”Yay!”

A bit later they were inside the supermarket, and Bea ran around the shopping cart because she didn’t want to sit down. Wade didn’t mind, though, because she wasn’t one of those kids that just ran off somewhere, she always stayed close.   
“We need two boxes with eggs, can you pick them?” Wade asked, watching as Bea went over to where the egg cartons were neatly stacked. She brought him first one, then another carton, then went to the milk, because they always bought some.   
They made it all the way through the cheese and meat section until Bea got tired of walking and wanted to sit in the cart again. She held onto Wade’s phone and showed him the shopping list, happily crossing out what they had in the cart.   
“We go Nanna May’s house?”  
“Yeah, we’ll clean up for her. She’s gonna come back tomorrow,” Wade said, thinking that he might let Bea draw something nice for May while he cleaned up a bit.   
“Cwean up, cwean up,” Bea began to sing quietly, a song that Peter’d taught her. Wade faintly remembered it being from some kind of kids show, but he’d never seen it. 

With their cart fully loaded they made their way over to the car – Wade always kept crates in the trunk when they went grocery shopping, simply because he couldn’t stand all those plastic bags flying around the house. Bea sat in the backseat and watched as he was loading everything in, then she got up and strolled over.

“Eat now,” Bea demanded, taking a Mango from one of the crates and holding it out to Wade.   
“Alright, but you gotta be patient for a moment,” Wade said, because sometimes she got a bit too excited. He finished loading in the groceries and then they took the shopping cart back to the store together. When they were at the car, Bea held out the fruit again.   
“Step back,” Wade said and Bea obediently took a few small steps to the side as he took out the big hunting knife he always had on his ankle, cutting up the fruit swiftly. Bea never seemed to be scared by the big knives Wade kept around – he didn’t keep any firearms within her reach and even the ones at home were locked up twice. But Wade did see some people stare, he hoped that they didn’t also notice the other weapons he was carrying.   
“We be careful,” Bea said, pointing to the knife.   
“Yeah, when we handle knives we’re careful. And why is that?”  
“’Cause it sharp. Cut, ouwie. Don’t want owie.”  
“That’s right, we don’t want that. – Here you go,” Wade said and held out a piece of mango, cut into small squares and folded upwards so Bea just had to bite into it.   
“Thank you,” she said happily and munched away on the fruit. She looked at Wade pointedly, in a way it reminded Wade of Peter. It was super cute.   
“Oh, well, guess we can’t waste the other half, huh?” Wade asked and began cutting the rest of the fruit for himself. Eating was always more fun in company, and only Peter and Bea got Wade to actually enjoy eating something healthy every now and then.   
They sat in the front of the car together and enjoyed their snack, while listening to one of her favourite CDs. Wade even got to snap a picture of the two of them munching on Mango slices and sent it to Peter. 

“See Daddy?” Bea asked, leaning over to peek at Wade’s phone.   
“He’s at work right now, baby, so we gotta be patient. We’ll see Daddy later okay.”  
“Yeah.”

 

When they got to aunt May’s house, Wade parked in the most obvious spot right in front of the house, so just in case anybody were to watch them, they’d know he was close. He wanted them to know.   
“Nanna! Where yoooou?” Bea yelled as soon as they were in the house. She stopped to take off her shoes, putting them next to Wade’s near the front door.   
“She’s not home, yet, sweetie. She’ll come back tomorrow,” Wade explained and Bea wandered around the sofa for a moment.   
“Aww. Miss Nanna.”  
“Yeah, I miss her, too. You wanna help me with the groceries?”  
“Yes.”  
They went to the kitchen together and Bea unpacked very carefully, putting their haul on two chairs – she couldn’t put all of it onto the table anyways and the risk of things falling was smaller this way.   
Wade opened the windows wide and let fresh air in, then he turned on a radio so they would have some entertainment. He wiped down the dining table first and then gave Bea some pens and paper so she could draw there while he cleaned the kitchen.   
“Papa.”  
“Yes, my love?”  
“When Daddy get home?”  
“It’s gonna be a while. We gotta be patient.”  
“Patient,” Bea repeated and continued her drawing, 

When it was time for her nap, Wade put her down in her little room upstairs, cleaning the guest room and the bathroom upstairs while he was there. He had turned off the radio so he wouldn’t disturb Bea’s sleep, so there was little more sounds around then water sloshing in his bucket every now and then.   
He was still angry.   
So very angry.   
Angry that Bea had to see – possibly feel – him getting shot. Angry that Bea had to cry, that she was scared, that Peter had gotten hurt.   
Wade wanted revenge for all this, wanted to make people bleed and hurt and cry, begging for mercy that he wouldn’t ever grant them. No, instead he would get out his favourite knives and- 

The sponge splashed back into the water when Wade groaned, holding his head with soapy hands. He was kneeling on the bathroom floor, breathing heavily, trying to get himself back together, ignore his racing heart and shaking hands that wanted nothing but hurt and kill.   
The tiles in front of him were red, his vision clouded over by hatred and rage, and it took long minutes until Wade was even somewhat coherent enough to get up.  
“Calm down. Calm down. You got this,” he mumbled to himself, because there was no way he was able to tend to Bea in that state. Mechanically picking up the sponge again, Wade started to take deep breaths and count them, ten, then another ten. By the last ten his vision had cleared again and he felt his rage simmer down, thankfully.   
The bathroom floor was nice and clean now and Wade leaned back with a sigh, rubbing his stiff and aching neck,not caring about his hands still being wet. He thought about what Peter had told him ... that Bea healed his hand that one morning.   
Wade believed that the only reason for that calming thechnique working on him was Bea. Whenever they were together she did something to his brain. Every minute she was there Wade felt it. Maybe she did it on purpose, but Wade thought that she probably didn’t know. 

 

With slow steps Peter wandered towards May’s house after stumbling off the bus. He was absolutely exhausted, mostly mentally. The past few hours the team had spent trying to contain the mess of incoming information all while keeping in touch with the regular authorities and SHIELD. 

Just for fun Peter rang the doorbell and grinned when he heard Bea’s fast little steps in the living room.   
“Daddy!” she shouted from inside, but waited for Wade to open the door – she wasn’t allowed to do that by herself.   
The moment the door opened and Peter was greeted by his family, all the tension of the past few hours left him. He laughed when he saw Bea, jumping up and down behind Wade.   
After he'd made some smaller changes to her outfits, like the dress he'd gotten her for Peter's graduation, Wade had kind of fallen in love with designing Bea's clothes. And it seemed that Wade had made some more clothes for them. He wore a red and black shirt with his costume design and “Dadpool” written on the chest, and Bea was wearing the same shirt in a white and pink version with “Babypool” written on it.   
“This is the cutest thing I've ever seen,” Peter praised and kissed both of them, first Bea who'd jumped into his arms, then Wade.   
“Just wait what I got planned for you guys and your day out. Heads are gonna explode from that cuteness,” the Merc said, carefully taking Peter's briefcase and putting it next to the staircase.   
“I'm already looking forward to it. Oh, I missed you guys,” Peter sighed, hugging Bea tight.  
“We missed you, too. Did you get our picture?”  
“Yes, and I loved it.”  
“Daddy! We make noodles! And salad!” Bea said happily, her hands on Peter’s shoulders. She looked so beautiful, her eyes sparkling and no trace of the past day’s scares left on her. Peter hoped that she would soon forget.   
“Oh, you planned dinner today?”  
“Yes!”  
“All by herself – and by next week she’ll cook it and I can take some time off,” Wade added as they walked to the kitchen – they would take some time for coffee and a snack before heading home again.   
“Nooo, Papa cooks dinner!”  
“There, no lazy time for you,” Peter teased and leaned in for another kiss. 

Peter listened to Bea happily when she told him about her day, how yummy that Mango was that Papa cut for her, and that she helped with shopping. On the ride home, Peter sat in the backseat with her and sang songs. All three of them cooked dinner together and later they brought Bea to bed with one of her favourite stories.   
She watched Peter turn on her night light with the fish in it, the colorful shapes dancing around her room as her lids got heavy.   
“Night night, princess.”  
“Ny ny, Daddy. Ny ny, Papa,” she whispered and hugged her bear tight. 

When they got to the living room the baby monitor showed them that Bea was asleep already. Peter checked his mails again, but there was nothing waiting for him, all his efforts of the day just ignored. He sighed and closed the laptop a bit too hard, making Wade shoot him a glance. The Merc came over, picking up some of Bea’s toys and putting them in her play area. 

“So, how was your day at the lab?” Wade asked, because of course he’d notice something was up. Peter sighed and leaned back into the sofa.   
”They want Bea in for an evaluation,” he said slowly, looking at the ceiling, frustrated because he’d tried all day to avoid that, but wasn’t successfull.   
“Huh? But she’s due for a regular check up in two weeks, can’t it wait?”  
“No. It’s not the doctor’s, it’s SHIELD.”  
“What ...?”  
Wade fell silent and Peter knew he was angry. No wonder. The last time they had to take Bea to a SHIELD building, she was assaulted by covert Hydra agents   
Peter was so tempted to call up SHIELD and forbid them from ever seeing Bea again. But that wouldn’t help, it would make the situation even worse.   
“They got some more children during the last mission, older ones as well, and a lot of them were traumatized.”  
”Well, duh.”  
“Now they want to check all children coming from the bases, the ones with powers especially, since they don’t want anybody to be harmed, of course.”  
“Of course,” Wade grumbled, sighing again deeply. “But we’re her parents, we can say no.”  
“You can,” Peter corrected, just a bit bitter. “But they’ll find a way. She has powers, so it’s just a matter of time before they bring up some kind of law concerning mutant children.”

“Stupid fuckfaces.”  
Peter reached out one hand over the back of the sofa after hearing Wade curse, offering him touch if he needed to calm down. The older man walked over and sighed, leaning over the back of the sofa, his chin resting on Peter’s shoulder.   
”I don’t want them to see Bea,” Wade hissed quietly, his dark tone resulting in goosebumps on Peter’s back.   
”We’ll stay with her all the time, that’s something you can insist on.”  
“I will. – When is it?”  
“Tomorrow, very short notice but they don’t care about that of course. I’m not sure what they plan on doing, but you can also veto certain examinations.”  
“Okay. – Can I ... can’t I tell them that I don’t want anybody touching her?”  
Peter reached up and ran his finger’s over Wade’s head softly, glad that he allowed it. Sometimes he was too angry for touching and would back away from it.   
“We can try that. There might be some mandatory things like taking her blood pressure or her height or something, but you could forbid them taking her blood.”  
”Good. – Those fuckers, though. Let them see how well she does, that’ll shut them up.”  
“I hope so,” Peter said, not mentioning his worries. Bea was noticably aheaad of other children her age and Peter was a bit afraid they could hold that against her. That she was too smart, too dangerous, too _something_. 

“I got you something,” Wade said, ripping Peter from his thoughts.   
”For me?”  
Wade nodded and went over to the office area, where he got a small package and a box cutte, holding both of it out to Peter before taking a seat on the couch next to him.   
“For you and Bea. Got it in the mail when we got here. Open up.”  
Peter laughed a bit too loud when he opened the package and peeked inside. There was a shirt his size with the usual Spiderman suit design printed on, and then the same thing for Bea, but on her version the spider on the chest had a binky and was overall a bit chubbier and smaller.  
“This is amazing. Thank you, honey. – When did you make that?”  
“Oh, you know, I just doodle that stuff whenever I feel like it and save it, so I can always order something nice for every occasion,” Wade explained nonchalantly, as if it was no big deal to him.   
“It’s wonderful. I love it.”  
“You can wear it tomorrow,” Wade said, leaning over and brushing a kiss to Peter’s temple.   
“Thanks,” Peter mumbled, both for the shirt and that he and Bea got to wear it and show that they belonged together this way.


	50. Chapter 50

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Well, well, look who's all on time and stuff :P   
> Work's finally letting me out of it's death grip, so I got a bit more time to write again ;) Got some really nice yummy things in planning for the summer, so stay tuned <3

Bea was so excited the next morning when Peter told her they’d be together all day, that he almost wanted to stay home. But there were two more mails in his inbox already, reminding him of their appointment at a SHIELD facility close by.   
“We’re going to a big house today and meet some people,” Peter explained when he sat Bea down on the bathroom sink to wash her and brush her teeth. There were some red stains on her cheeks from the berries she’d had with her pancakes, and her hands and neck were sticky from the syrup.   
“Meet? Who?” she asked, reaching out for her toothpaste.   
“Some people who want to talk to you. Get to know you.”  
“Why me?”  
Peter almost wanted to say that he asked himself that question very often.   
“Because you’re special. They’re excited to meet you. Are you excited, too?”  
“Yeah!”   
Peter smiled, glad that he got Bea happy. Well, it wasn’t that big of an accomplishment, you just had to pretend to be super hyped about something and she’d jump right in. Still, it was nice that she was happy, and maybe everything would turn out to be good. 

Wade already waited for them in Bea’s room. He put on a happy face for her as well, putting some undies on her and brushing out her hair before they went over to her wardrobe.  
“Alright, time to dress up, little Bea-bear! What do you think is best?” Wade asked, hands on his hips, a deeply serious expression on his face. Bea mimicked him, then looked up briefly and stepped over to her closet.   
Wade lifted her up onto a little stool so that she could actually reach things.  
“Wed,” she announced and swiped her hair out of her little face before pulling out a red dress.  
Wade, who was wearing a red hoodie, grinned brightly.   
“Good choice, how about black shoes to that?”  
“Yesss,” she lisped, nodding excitedly since Wade seemed to have picked up on her idea. 

So a few minutes later she was wearing the little red dress, with her black sneakers, and wanted Wade to put her hair up into a ponytail.   
Peter watched in amusement how Bea sat down in front of the floor to ceiling mirror on their closet door, legs crossed and waiting in perfect patience as Wade brushed her blonde hair.   
When she was satisfied with her hairstyle, she ran back to her dresser and got the Spidey shirt Wade had made for her. Peter already wore his and so they all matched up in red, black and blue.   
“This is perfect, little Bea, you sure got some fashion sense!” Wade praised her and winked at Peter, before helping Bea put it on.   
“You are the absolute cutest,” Peter said in amazement and Bea grinned at him, apparently very satisfied with herself.   
“We go now, Daddy,” the little girl demanded, but then looked down at herself once more to check her outfit. She marched out of the room then, with so much determination that Peter couldn’t keep from giggling.

“What about ya bear, little one?” Wade called after her, pointing to the plush toy still on the floor where she’d left it.  
”Oh no! Bear!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide. Suddenly she turned and ran back to grab the bear. 

 

They arrived at their usual SHIELD headquarters and of course were eyed curiously. Bea immediately picked up on the situation around them and looked up to Wade helplessly, so that the Merc took her in his arms. She even hid her face on Wade’s shoulder as the stares from some of the employees got too intense, making Peter even angrier that they had to drag their girl here, even though everything was fine. 

They didn’t have to introduce themselves, not even fill in any paperwork – so SHIELD didn’t seem to be interested in Bea as a person, but in Bea as a mutant. Her name was enough to put her into a databank.  
They met an older woman first, who asked Bea questions for about an hour. She excelled at each and every psychological test, was far ahead in logical thinking and hand-eye-coordination. Bea counted to twenty without mistakes and recited the whole alphabet, first from A to Z, then because the doctor asked, Bea said it again from Z to A.   
Wade shot him a surprised look when Bea slowly but without mistakes went backwards through the alphabet but Peter only shrugged. He didn’t teach her this, she must’ve just picked it up somehow.   
He briefly wondered whether or not she would be able to solve simple mathematical problems already, like adding numbers. 

“You sure know a lot of things, well done,” the doctor praised and took some notes on a stack of paper. When she looked up, Peter felt Wade tense – as usual he wasn’t very comfortable around doctors. “I would now ask you to leave the room for a moment so I can talk with her alone.”  
“No,” Wade said right away, arms crossed in front of his chest.  
“But, Mr. Wilson-  
”No. Nobody gets to be alone with her. You wanna ask her something, do it now.”  
The doctor, obviously miffed by Wade’s behaviour, turned to Peter for support.   
“No,” he also said quietly, fighting a smile because he really didn’t want to seem like an asshole. “You ask her now, with us here, or not at all.”  
“Fine,” she snapped, and Bea looked over to her at her tone. She smiled again to the little girl, and Peter wondered if Bea could tell how fake it was. Maybe.   
“So, Beatrice-“  
“I’m Bea,” she interrupted quietly, reaching out for one of the colored pencils on the desk. The doctor had asked her to draw a while ago and Bea continued her picture.   
“Yes, Bea, so ... tell me, are you happy?”  
“Yes.”  
The doctor raised her eyebrows the littlest bit, as if not expecting such a forward answer. Peter hated her. Wanted to leave.   
Wade was silent the whole time, arms crossed still, watching the doctor’s every move.   
“And, Bea, do you have your own room at home?”  
“Yes.”  
Peter really wanted to grin at the way Bea answered, but then again he didn’t want to encourage her to be rude. He just let it slide this one time because he didn’t like the doctor.   
“Do you have lots of toys? What’s your favourite toy?”  
“I like bear. Papa gave me,” Bea said, leaning back a bit to show the bear she was holding in her lap.   
“That is a very cute bear. – Can you tell me who’s in your family?”  
“Daddy, and my Papa ... and Nanna May, she make yummy cookies.”  
“Who is ...?” she said and looked up to Peter. He was tempted not to answer, but forced himself to.   
“My aunt, who raised me. She’s like a mother to me, so she’s Bea’s grandmother,” he explained, obviously not giving any further personal information on her.   
“I like yummy cookies! And noddles, Papa make noodles for Bea.”  
“That’s great. – Is that your favourite food?”  
“Yeah, noodles!”  
“Noodley are great. But, are you sometimes hungry?”  
“Seriously?!” Wade asked, his eyes blazing with hate.   
“Well, I have to ask,” the doctor snapped at him and Peter just barely kept from rolling his eyes.   
When she turned to Bea again, the little girl had begun to put the pencils back into a cup.   
“Bea, do you sometimes get angry? Really angry?” she asked, bur Bea didn’t answer. Instead, she finished tidying up the pencils and pushed her picture over to the doctor, probably not caring about it as much.  
“Do you know what happens sometimes when you get angry?”   
Bea, still silent, got up the chair – without asking for permission – and went over to Wade.   
His posture changed right away, got softer, the anger left his features and he smiled gently when Bea climbed into his lap. She snuggled up to his chest and whispered something into his shirt that Peter couldn’t understand.  
“Convo’s over, doc, little miss needs to go somewhere. See ya,” Wade said and got up without much more preamble, carrying Bea. Peter got up and grabbed their bags to follow then, leaving the baffled doctor behind. 

They still had one more appointment, so they couldn’t leave the building, but at least they didn’t have to stay with that doctor. She didn’t even call after them.   
“Do you really have to go pee pee or ...?” Wade asked and Peter grinned when Bea shook her head.   
“No. Don’t wanna talk to doctor,” she said quietly, holding her bear to Wade’s chest. “She’s a meanie.”  
“She is. Let’s go play,” Peter said, having checked his phone to see where they were headed next. It turned out to be a waiting area / play room where Bea could have some downtime. 

Peter quite liked it here – for a waiting room it was very warm and bright, with comfortable carpets and padded areas around the wooden slide, overall it seemed more like a daycare room.   
There were loads of toys, books, stuffed animals and even a ball pit, so of course Bea was having a blast. 

“Why does it take so long today?” Wade grumbled, while pouring out some big, wooden puzzle pieces onto the play mat. Bea scooted closer and mixed them up, then began to turn them face up onto the mat.   
“I don’t know. I do remember that I specifically asked not to wait,” Peter replied, helping Bea turn over the pieces. The three of them completed the puzzle, then another one, then drew a while, since there was chalk and a blackboard in one corner.   
“No more, all done,” Bea declared, having decorated the blackboard with lots of flowers, butterflies, a cat and their family, including aunt May. Peter was secretly glad she didn’t want to write anything on it.  
“Alright, then let’s clean up before we play something else,” Peter said and handed her a sponge. Bea obediently wiped the board clean and let him wipe her hands with a wet wipe and only then went over to a big doll house to play. 

“It’s over an hour now, Imma go and ask what’s going on,” Wade mumbled and left the room, only to return minutes later with no concrete answer.   
“They should be right there ... right there my ass,” he added and caught himself a chiding look from Peter. Although the Merc had learned not to use too many bad words around Bea, he still slipped up sometimes. 

“Daddy, is snacktime, yet?” she wanted to know, just wiggling the dolls from the dollhouse around, not really playing anymore. Maybe she was too hungry to be interested, Peter thought, smiling gently.   
“Sure, honey. Come over, we’re gonna have some snacks.”

So they went back to the playmat and improvised a little picknick with their water bottles, some tea Peter had prepared for Bea in a thermal mug. As usual, Peter had taken a big plastic box full of fruit, but also some crackers packed.   
Bea held her little teacup to her Teddy Bear’s mouth, pretending to let him drink.   
”I share, Daddy.”  
“Yes, you share your tea, well done,” Peter answered, while Wade secretly snapped a picture with his phone, sending it to aunt May. 

After their picnic, Bea got drowsy, wanting to cuddle instead of playing. Peter was secretly annoyed that she would have to do the last tests when she was so tired. He was sure it would make her cranky later and they’d have to deal with that just because of SHIELD.   
Wade offered to read her a book and Bea happily chose one from the small shelf. 

It took another full hour for anyone to turn up, by then Bea was taking her nap, lying on Wade’s chest who had layed down on the playmat. Peter had started reading a book he brought. He was halfway through the book when the door was opened and a different doctor came in, one they hadn’t met, yet.   
“Mr. Parker, Mr. Wilson,” he greeted and Peter suppressed a sigh when Bea woke up, startled by the stranger in the room. She stared at the doctor and Peter hoped he was not – but he was already leaning down and spoke to Bea.   
“And hello to you, too, little lady.”  
Bea’s eyes went slightly bigger and then she started straight up wailing and crying. 

“Oh god, oh no,” Wade hissed barely audible and hugged Bea tight. He knew that this wasn’t really crying because something was wrong, there would barely be any tears – Bea was just upset with the stranger and confused, but didn’t have enough words to explain.   
“It’s okay, little one, the man just wanted to say hi to you. It’s alright, he’s a nice guy, really, Wade said, gently patting Bea’s back.   
The doctor opened his mouth to say something, but Peter shook his head quickly and Wade motioned for him to be silent. 

Eventually Bea stopped crying, but refused to let go of either Wade or her bear.   
“Papa ...,” she said quietly, her eyes pleading. “Please ... please, go home.”  
Peter felt his heart melt a little bit and Wade looked like he would be the one crying next, so the younger man got up and ushered them into the hallway.   
“Daddy has to talk to the doctor, Papa will go so you can look at the pictures outside,” he said, seeing Wade nod. Once they were out of the room, Peter forgot his gentle smile, turning to the doctor with a scowl.   
“Mr. Parker-“  
“Now, listen up. We are not going to do one more test with her. None. She’s tired and your personnel has insulted us enough. Send whatever report you have to send, but leave us alone.”  
“Mr. Parker, I am here to tell you the results of today’s tests,” the doctor said, a bit more patient than the last few they met.  
“Then do,” Peter grumbled, wanting to get to his family as soon as possible.  
“Your daughter has passed every test, actually she was ahead of our expectations. And you and Mr. Wilson also passed the last test.”  
Peter looked up, alerted all of a sudden. He hadn’t noticed any tests being done, or them being filmed, nor had they ever agreed to something like this. He hoped for the sake of everyone in the building that Wade didn’t hear of this.   
“What?”   
“We watched you and Mr. Wilson tend to Beatrice for the last hour as part of our evaluation. I know this might seem intrusive to you, but the point was to see how you interact with your daughter naturally. And I am glad to inform you that you both did very well. Now, especially given Mr. Wilson’s history, we feared that he-“

Peter didn’t let the guy finish, just stomped out of the room and left. He met Wade and Bea in the hallway in front of the elevator, and urged them to leave.   
“We all done?” Bea asked, still in Wade’s arms.   
“Yeah, we’re all done. We’ll have some yummy food now,” Peter said, smiling for Bea, which was much easier now that they could finally get away.   
“What did he say?” Wade asked once they were in the elevator, thankfully just the three of them.   
“That ... Bea passed all of the tests. There are no more, so I wanted to go now.”  
“Yeah, it’s about time.”  
“We go now,” Bea said happily to her stuffed bear.

 

It was already way later than they had planned, so Peter and Wade decided they could at least make something of the day and have lunch out today. Bea didn’t want to walk on her own, but insisted to sit on Peter’s shoulders, which she did all the way to a small italian restaurant they chose for lunch.   
“Pizza!” Bea exclaimed, obviously having caught up on Wade’s love for fast food. She never complained about Peter’s healthy cooking, but the hero knew that whenever Wade and Bea were out together, he let her have all kinds of fastfood.

Peter took her down from his shoulders, so they could walk into the door, but Bea seemed very unhappy about it, until Wade offered to carry her.   
“Yess,” she lisped and cuddled up to Wade’s side while Peter led them through the restaurant to one of the booths in the back, where they would be a bit further away from other people’s stares.   
The waiters actually removed two chairs for them, and brought a highchair with a pillow for Bea. Peter strapped her into it and stuffed the pillow behind her, so that she wouldn’t slide around.

Of course they noticed people staring at them, some even seemed bothered to see Wade. But as usual, it was Bea who lightened the mood for everyone – and making all the spectators see who Wade really was.   
They each shared some of their pizzas with her, Wade cutting little pieces for her to pick up. “Papa, I’m hungwy!” she said, impatiently patting her little hands on the table. Wade arranged her food on a plate, while Peter tried to calm her down enough to hold her fork.   
“Now you can eat, but remember to use the fork.”  
“Yesss, Daddy,” she said, looking very concentrated while she picked one of the pieces up. She held the fork upside down and struggled for a moment because she held it way too far down the handle.   
Grinning, Wade lifted the middle of her fork, since Bea had been sitting there with her mouth open like a fish, trying to balance the pizza into it.   
“Mmmh,” she mumbled happily while chewing, then watched as Wade rearranged the fork in her hand, making her hold it just above the prongs.   
“That’s better, now go ahead and eat up, you still need to grow like ten feet.”  
Bea giggled and out of the corner of his eye, Peter saw a woman on the next table grin about Wade’s statement.   
“It’ss yummy, Daddy,” she said between two pieces, and Peter was glad she just took whatever was on her plate. At least she wasn’t a picky eater, he thought.   
“Yeah, very yummy,” Peter replied. 

Bea was on her best behaviour throughout the meal, so Peter gave her a little treat – he always kept some chocolates in a bag somewhere when she did really good – when their waiter came over to collect their plates.  
“I hope you enjoyed your meal,” he said with a practiced smile.   
“Vewy yummy! Thank you!” Bea said happily and the waiter suddenly grinned, hlushing a bit and obviously fallen for Bea’s cuteness, like almost everyone.   
“You are most welcome, little Miss,” he said and went back to the kitchen. 

 

Since they had the car parked at StarkTower, Peter wanted to check back on the lab quickly before they went home.   
“Can you come with me?” he asked on the way up, pushing the floor number for the daycare when Wade nodded. It was almost pick-up time for the younger children, but their trip to the lab wouldn't take long, so the nannies were fine with Bea joining the group for a bit.   
She ran off to play with the other kids as soon as Peter let go of her hand.   
“Well, okay, that was quick,” he mumbled, astonished at the fact that Bea didn’t even look back, feeling secure enough to know they’d never leave without her.   
“All grown up ‘n stuff,” Wade giggled, pulling Peter along out of the hallway. They were the only people at the lab at that time, the Team, just Phillip and Preston today, were probably out for lunch right now. Julia and Emily worked from home, compiling data and putting up a plan for the next missions. 

“So, how`re things coming along?” Wade asked, peeking at a screen every now and again.   
“Pretty good. Well, if you could call it good. The next big mission is going to be in a few days,” Peter said, looking up into Wade’s eyes. They kept the exact date tightly under wraps, would tell their teams just before it happened, so that no one could be blackmailed into giving up information.   
“So I’m going, huh?” Wade asked, closing the distance between them to lean his head against Peter’s shoulder. The younger man nodded slowly, wishing he could say no.   
“We .... will need a special team.”  
“And by special you mean a team that kills?”  
“Yes.”  
“I’m in.”  
“I know. I ... I just wanted to ... give you the opportunity to say no.”  
“Not gonna,” Wade replied with a quick kiss to Peter’s neck. He slid his arms under Peter’s, onto his chest, hugging his lover tight. “And I might know someone to back us up a bit. Imma make some calls.”  
“Good, we can use some more hands. We’re already trying to put together international teams so we can have all the bases attacked within 24 hours,” Peter explained, resting his forehead on Wade’s chest. Realizing that they were alone for the first time that day, Peter lifted his chin slowly, brushing his lips over Wade’s. The Merc smiled into the kiss, one hand travelling up from Peter’s hips to the base of his neck, rough fingers holding on so very gently.  
”Can’t we, like, jump into one base, kick some ass, and then move to the next?” he asked a moment later, head jerking back at the idea. Peter shrugged, tiptoeing briefly for another kiss.  
“We can try, but you never know what’s waiting inside.”  
“Hm, true. Ugh, I wish I could still teleport, that’d be great.”

Even though he wanted nothing more than to spend a while longer just kissing his lover, he reminded himself that the rest of he team would be back from lunch soon. Patting Wade’s shoulders, Peter let go of him and turned to one of the keyboards on a desk.  
“I wanted you to see something. It’s just between the team and I for now, but I wanted you to know. Because that’s why they called Bea in for evaluation – I think.”  
“Okay.”  
“Remember him?” Peter said, opening up a video recording of the little boy they got out of one of the bases.  
“Oh, sure! He’s awake?”  
“Yeah, has been for a few days. He’s been in a high security medical facility the whole time, in a coma. Then, one minute to the other, he woke up, sat up, drank some water that the nurses gave him. He still doesn’t speak, but the doctors say that might have to do with the surgeries, so he might have to learn that all over again.”  
“He’s looking okay, though ...”  
“Yeah, he’s less violent. And we thought he didn’t have any special powers, because there was no healing factor found with him during the preparations for surgery. But then, we saw this,” Peter said, playing a recording from the boy’s hospital room. There was a small window in the locked door where a nurse appeared and talked to him.   
The nurse disappeared again after a moment and then the boy was alone, seemingly just staring into nothing. There was a simple picture at the other side of the room, just some colorful shapes, nothing too interesting. It suddenly started to sway, left, right, left, right, then the hook in the back unhinged and it floated slowly downward.  
The next second, it was gone, exploded into a little mound of dust on the floor.  
“What the actual fuck? What was that?” Wade gasped, leaning forward to see it again when Peter replayed the sequence.  
“We don’t know, yet. He doesn’t seem to use his powers around people ... maybe he doesn’t remember what it is he’s doing.”  
“This is ... crazy ... but wait, wasn’t he, like, one of those super special trained kids?”  
“Yeah,” Peter breathed, not wanting to think about how many more of these there were.   
“So what’s this good for? Exploding guns?”  
“That, too. His powers seem to work on non-organic materials, and there are a few people around who have metal in their bodies. Or around it.”  
“Shit.”  
“And then we got this one,” Peter said, closing the video to open up another one. It was footage from a surveillance camera somewhere inside a dim room. Lots of human figures were huddled in a corner.  
“This is from one of our bugs, recorded during the last mission,” Peter explained. They saw the team bursting into the room, and one of the figures stood up, pulling something with her.   
Flashlights were turned on and they now saw that it was a woman holding a small child by the hand. The two of them looked very much alike, even in that little light, so there was barely any doubt that it was mother and child.   
The toddler, couldn't be more than two or three years, stretched her free hand out and the man standing closest to her jerked and twisted around, then fell down.   
“Did she just kill that guy?!” Wade asked, eyes wide in disbelief.   
“Thankfully not, but she did injure him severely. Broke five bones.”  
“What the shit is that? What did they cook up in that lab?!” Wade asked, and Peter understood that he was saying that not because he thought the child was some kind of abomination, but because they had just witness her hurt someone. No child should have to do something like this, powers or not. “So what, she … was ... hiding her powers?”   
“To get out. She pretended to not have any powers and so they were let out.”  
“Where are they now?”   
“Secure location, only Stark and his A.I. know where exactly. It seems like he’s setting up a big compound where people like them can stay safely.”  
“Hmm ... not sure if I think that’s a good idea or not ...,” Wade mumbled and Peter sighed quietly.   
“Me neither. But it’s an okay option for now. Until the missions are over. Then we’ll see about the aftermath.”  
“So, what’s going on now, we’ve got kids with crazy healing factors, powers that kill other mutants, and kids who can hide their powers?”  
Peter nodded slowly, closing the video player on the computer and the folder he found the files in.   
“Yes. And we assume that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what else came out of all this experimentation.”  
“Oh god,” Wade sighed, rubbing a hand over his head. “This is so fucked up. All those kids … we have to make this stop.”  
“I just hope that SHIELD gets their noses out of this. I don't want them to treat those children like … weapons. Like some kind of failed experiment.”  
“They'll surely never see Bea ever again. – You know what, Imma make a call,” Wade grumbled, taking his phone out of his pocket, scrolling through his contacts. He held up a finger when it beeped, waiting for the person on the other end of the line to pick up.   
Peter watched curiously, only briefly turning to type a note on one of the computers for the others to see. Just a short info that he'd stopped by and would get in touch via their secured messaging system in a while. 

“Frankie! How's it hangin'? - Psh, you know I got all the good numbers. … Yeah, no, now listen. I got a job coming up that you might like to help out. And by help out I mean go and creatively murder child molesters. - Ah, always a pleasure to work with you. - Kay, send you the details, smooches!”  
“So, who's in?”  
“That's a surprise. Stark and the gang might not like it, but then again if they let me work on that, then they'll be fine with him, too. - You done there? Kinda have to get home, little one's gonna need her naptime soon.”  
“Yeah, I'm ready, let's go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like, follow me on Tumblr,   
> [ right here! ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/)
> 
> See you next week, take care sweeties <3


	51. Chapter 51

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D  
> Sorry for being M.I.A. last week, I was convinced I had some more time for stuff but then holiday preparations took me hostage aah ^^"  
> Now I'm getting spoiled at Mama's, so I've got lots of time to create new content for you, look forward to it!
> 
> Enjoy <3

The moment they got home, Bea fell into bed for a long nap, and thankfully was her peachy happy self after. While Peter worked she played with her little pretend kitchen next to him, every now and then taking a little plastic ice cream cone or a piece of cake and putting it onto the edge of the desk.  
“You have cafè, Daddy,” she explained and Peter grinned wide while typing, because she was just the cutest. She’d asked him to put on her apron and chef hat before playing, so now she wore the frilly pink accessories while decorating Peter’s desk. 

Up until dinner time, Wade was downstairs, adding the last finishing touches to the apartments they’d rent out the next month. This would mark the last of their vacant apartments getting contracted, so they’d be all set for new projects soon. Wade hadn’t said much about it, but Peter knew that the Merc was looking into the house market every now and then.   
There was a lot going on in their lives already, but Peter also couldn’t help himself and daydreamed about a nice big house for his family, a safe place full of love and happiness. 

Wade’s work seemed to take a bit more time, so Peter went to take care of the dinner preparations by himself while Bea had moved to her little table to draw some pictures. He heard Wade rummage around the storage closet on their floor, metal clanking, some tools clattering about. Then he went back downstairs.

 

“Bea, can you put away your drawing things, please? Dinner’s almost ready,” Peter said a while later when he took one of the pots off the stove. He’d prepared a nice meal of steak, mashed potatoes and green beans and was almost ready to call Wade up.   
“Yes, daddy,” she said, but continued to draw. When Peter looked over he saw that her picture must be almost ready, and he decided to go investigate her art.   
“Who is that?” Peter asked curiously when looking over her shoulder, pointing at the figure in a red and black suit, but with blond hair and a big grin.   
“That's Papa! He pwetty,” she explained and for a moment Peter stared at the picture.   
“But … Papa doesn't have hair.”  
“No, no hair. But this pwetty Papa, like before.”  
Peter stared at her in surprise.  
“Before what?”  
“Before,” she just said, shrugging her little shoulders like she couldn't explain it any other way.   
“Bea,” Peter began, looking at the little girl. “Where have you seen Papa like this?”  
Bea cocked her head to the side, thinking. Then she shrugged again.   
“Dunno. This Papa,” she said again and Peter smiled and told her that it was a great picture, even though his mind still raced. Words burning on his tongue, he desperately wanted to ask her where she’d seen him, how she knew that Wade at some point in his life had hair.   
Sure, she could just have made it up, but the picture just looked too close to what Wade really looked like – Wade had shown Peter a very old photograph once – so Peter guessed it had something to do with her powers. Maybe it was even connected to her healing abilities that seemed to center mostly around Wade – like she knew that his looks now weren’t right and that her picture was closer to what he would look like if he was healthy.   
“Can I put fridge?” she asked, holding up her picture.  
“Oh sure you can, go find a nice spot for it,” Peter replied and went back to look after their dinner again. 

Once her art was displayed in the fridge – that was almost completely covered in drawings and photographs – Peter let Bea call Wade, so he’d come back up for dinner.   
“Wash hands, Papa!” was the first thing she said when the older man was through the door.   
“Yes, Ma’am. You gonna help me?”  
“Yes!”

Peter grinned when he saw Bea take Wade by the hand and lead him to the bathroom where they washed their hands together.   
Wade was also the one that got to hold her during the bedtime story in the evening, while Peter sat in front of the rocking chair and read from one of her favourite books. She even asked Wade to hold her hand until she fell asleep, and he did, while Peter watched them, both arms resting on the edge of her crib, a content smile on his lips. 

 

The following day they headed out right after breakfast to collect aunt May from the airport. Wade had even taken a piece of cardboard from Bea’s crafting box with them and wrote “Nanna May” on it, so Bea sat on his shoulders, holding the sign up proudly.   
The moment May spotted them waiting in line with other family members, her usual content smile turned into a big grin.   
“Oh, I missed you!” she said and reached out for Bea right away. Wade took her off her shoulders and pulled May’s suitcase in while she hugged Bea.   
“Welcome home!” Bea shouted happily, a phrase she’d practiced in the car with Peter.   
“Thank you, my love. I’m so happy to be with you again,” she replied and motioned for Peter and Wade to some closer. They all hugged, one big family hug, then slowly maneuvered out of the now packed airport.  
“We cwean house, Nanna!” Bea said when Peter strapped her into her car seat, aunt May already on the seat next to her.   
“Oh, that’s so nice of you, then-“  
“Nah-uh, don’t even suggest it, Imma make lunch for us today,” Wade interruped, just buckling up in the driver’s seat. He put on a different CD this time, mainly because they’d heard the wheels on the bus about a thousand times on the way to the airport.   
”You’ve obviously planned to spoile me some more, even though I just got back from vacation?” May teased and Wade laughed, putting the keys into the ignition while Peter finally slid into his seat next to Bea. She seemed happy to have so much company in the backseat and wiggled her feet.   
“Absolutely. And can’t you use some more relaxing after all those nights in the clubs and casinos?”  
Peter and May laughed at that.   
“Yes, very funny. But I did win at a slotmachine though,” she said proudly, holding Bea’s little hand, smiling down at the little fingers curling into her palm. 

Just as he promised Wade took care of the family lunch once they were at May’s – he’d decided on Lasagna and Salad, mainly because Bea really wanted her beloved noodles. May told them of her big win and the show she and her friends watched. She’s even taken lots of pictures with the digital camera Peter had given her last Christmas.

They had been up a bit earlier than usual to get a good breakfast and some playtime before heading to the crowded airport with Bea – better to have her super relaxed than get cranky – so after lunch she was soon worn out.  
Peter put her down for a nap in her room upstairs, once again happy that they had this option. When he came back downstairs, he started cleaning up the living room. His gaze wandered out the window, where a big truck just pulled up to the neighbors lawn.

“What's going on there?” Peter asked, putting away Bea's toys that had exploded all over the living room.   
“Oh, the Gerber's moved out. They're going to live with Mrs. Gerber's daughter, because … well, after Rick had to use the wheelchair it got too cumbersome for them to keep the house,” aunt May explained, it became clear that she would miss her friends and neighbours. Everybody in the area was close to one another, there were even parties and barbecues for everyone in the summer.   
“Have they sold the place, yet?” Wade piped up from his place in the kitchen, his knife having stilled on the cutting board, where he was just preparing a fruit salad. Peter looked at him, surprise in his eyes.   
They hadn't talked about their plan with a house in a long time, not even seriously discussed it but mostly joked around.  
“No, I don't think so. But I guess it'd be hard to sell, you know, there's a lot to be done. Last winter their roof leaked.”  
“Uh huh,” Wade just said, looking down at the board for a moment, then to Peter. They exchanged a long gaze, the Merc lifting his eyebrows.   
Peter cocked his head to the side minutely, unsure how to react. If the house really was so much work, maybe it’d not be worth it. Then again, they would be close to aunt May like they wanted, and it was a good neighborhood to raise Bea.   
There should even be enough money on their shared savings account to settle the first few payments for it …  
“I'll go over and ask!” Wade said suddenly and laughed when Peter and aunt May gasped at him.   
“What, you boys want to buy a house?”  
“Well, yeah, but … I didn't think it'd be such a spontaneous thing,” Peter said, laughing suddenly, because it felt like this would be a good decision. If it came to it. 

Wade strutted back into the kitchen moments later with a piece of paper in his hand and a huge grin on his face.   
“Perfect news, my love. We can buy the whole thing!”  
“What thing? The house? But we haven't even looked at it,” Peter argued, hoping Wade hadn’t done anything too quickly that they’d regret later. Wade only shook his head, beaming at him the entire time.   
“No, not the house – the land! We can tear down the house and the fence and build right next to aunt May's house. Like, all snuggled up together, wouldn't that be awesome? All our problems solved – bam!”  
“Well, I didn’t know we had any problems.”  
“That’s not what I meant, I meant like our house-buying problems. Like with them all being just not quite right.”  
“Or too expensive,” Peter added wryly, peeking over to the house again. He himself hadn’t looked at any houses at all, but he knew Wade had and most of his favourites cancelled themselves out because of the price or location.   
“Exactly! I could do a lot of the work on my own-“  
“No.”  
“What?”  
“No, you don’t do that alone, Wade. Seriously, what if something happens to you?”  
Wade rolled his eyes, keeping from mentioning his healing factor in front of their aunt.   
“Right, yeah. So I’ll get pros to do all the important work, but just listen, love. We could have the house we wanted, and be close to here, and ... like, solve all the issues. Huh?”  
Peter had to admit that this seemed like the perfect opportunity – they’d talked about wanting to include aunt May in their family more, maybe getting her to move into a house with them. This way she wouldn’t have to give up the house – which she wouldn’t agree to anyways – and they’d still all be together.  
“Yeah,” Peter whispered and felt a smile tug at his lips. A few years ago, just after they got married, Wade had paid off aunt May’s remaining mortgage and bought the land the house was on, so that she could live there for the rest of her life without having to worry. So now, if they bought the adjoining property, they could build a big house right through, all of them living together. And they could have a big garden for Bea – Peter could almost see her on a swing set or in a sandbox or watering plants.

“So, we gonna do it?” Wade urged, bouncing up and down, still clutching the paper in his hands. Slowly, a smile spread on Peter’s lips and he nodded.   
“We’re going it.”  
“Oh my god!” Wade laughed and pulled him into a big embrace, kissing Peter over and over again until the younger man laughed as well. Then Wade pulled aunt May into the hug, too. 

While May insisted they’d open a good wine in celebration, Wade went over and talked to the real estate manager. Peter couldn’t believe that everything could just fall into place so perfectly and so fast all at once, but when he saw the papers Wade brought a moment later, requesting the property be reserved for them to buy, Peter felt almost drunk with happiness.   
“Well, I do have a good credit score, since I’m, like, rich and all,” Wade mentioned smugly when Peter stared at the document for a moment.   
“Wade,” Peter began, trying to speak around the lump forming in his throat and the whirlwind of feelings inside him. “We ... we’re gonna need one of those porch swings.”  
“Yes!” Wade laughed and hugged him again, crumpling the paper between them until Peter could wrestle his hand free. “Oh god, let’s, like, get the tackiest home we can!”  
Peter laughed, wrapping his arms around Wade tighly and kissing his head, over and over once again, until aunt May pried them apart by reminding them that they still wanted to have a toast on the decision. 

When Bea woke up from her nap she wanted to make cookies with aunt May, and Wade told her about the house.  
“We’re gonna live here with nanna May, won’t that be super awesome?”   
“Yay!” she said, a bit too forcefully smashing a wooden spoon through the cake batter. Wade gently put his hand over hers and helped her stir so that they wouldn’t spill everything.   
“We’re gonna live in a big house soon, that’ll be so cool.”  
“Cool house,” Bea agreed, stopping Wade mid-stir. “Dough all good now. We try it!”  
Wade laughed, but took the spoon out and wiped most of the dough off it before holding it out to Bea.   
“You’re right, you gotta try it. See if it’s any good.”  
Bea nodded, licking the spoon clean before she hopped off the chair. Wade and May prepared the cookies and put them onto the baking sheet, then they let Bea help push it into the oven.   
“Now push the button,” May said, showing Bea the timer.  
“When we can eat? In ... in one ... five ... minutes.”  
“Fifteen minutes,” Wade supplied, gently taking the spoon out of Bea’s hand.   
“Fifteen minutes!” she said to Peter, smiling proudly and pointing to the cookies. 

They later enjoyed the cookies and some milk, and all the while Peter’s eyes drifted over to the other house – their future home – every now and then. Even though they wouldn’t keep the house at all, Peter couldn’t help daydream about what it might be like, finally have such a big place for themselves. A real home, for their whole family.

“Aw, what a dreamy sigh,” Wade commented, chin resting on his hands. Peter giggled, just a bit embarrassed that he had actually sighed out loud when thinking about their house.   
“Don’t tease me, I’m just happy.”  
“Me, too,” Wade replied calmly and when May raised her glass of milk, they all followed her suit.   
“To family,” she simply said, and they all clinked their glasses together.

 

They made their way home in the evening, laughing and joking all the while, making more or less serious plans for their new home. Peter got to give Bea a bath, but the moment he lifted her out of the tub, she ran off, dripping wet and completely naked.  
“Wait, come back!” Peter called, grinning still because Bea's laugh was contagious. She found it hilarious to have Peter chase her like that.  
“Papa, Daddy catch Bea!” she shouted, dashing around the kitchen island and around her play area while Wade burst out laughing. 

Just when he jumped over to run after Bea, Peter’s phone began to chime softly from it’s spot on the coffee table.   
“Can you pick that up for me? If it’s the lab, tell ‘em to mail me!” Peter called, racing after their little girl all the way to her room, where he caught her with a web to the back. Bea laughed when Peter made her dangle in the air on the web he held, her arms and legs flailing around.   
“Fun, Daddy, fun!” she giggled and squealed when Peter held her upside down at her ankles and tickled her toes while he brought her over to the changing table. 

Eventually he got her dressed, even though her hair still hung around in wet strands.   
“Go play?” she asked, grabbing her favourite bear when Peter put her on the floor again.   
“Yeah, we’ll play some more, and then we’ll read a book before night night.”  
“Yay!” Bea said, still energetic even after such a long day. She ran off into the living room and to her table, where she took out some Play-Dough and shapes to play with. Wade stood in the middle of the living room, his back to Peter, but the younger man knew right away that something wasn’t right. He could see the tense lines in Wade’s posture, the stress weighing on his shoulders, that others might have missed.   
Carefully watching his lover, Peter made his way through the room.

Wade didn’t say much, just hummed every now and then to indicate he was listening. He hang up so abruptly Peter would’ve guessed he’d been fighting with the person on the other end if he hadn’t heard the calm voice.   
“What is it?” Peter asked, certain now that something was going on. While he wiped his still damp hands on a fluffy towel, Peter kneeled next to Bea and began towelling her hair. Wade watched both of them for a moment, a strange look crossing his features. He gulped in a deep breath and then began talking slowly.  
“It was the lab. They ... they found a lead on the missing samples. Something to do with which bases to attack first, they said you’d know about it ... uh ... and ... they think it might be ... uh ...”  
“What?” Peter asked and all but held Bea’s ears closed. She looked at him in surprise, but didn’t object.  
“They think the next facility has had your samples and Cap’s among others.”  
Peter let go of Bea’s head and sighed. He’d expected and dreaded this moment since they knew of the bases. There was anxiety surging through his body, but also dull frustration because it’d taken so long.  
“So what are they gonna do? When’s the mission?” he asked and helped Bea put another load of Play-Dough into her shapes. She looked at Wade, apparently following their discussion.   
“No date set yet. But they said I should be ready to go from now on.”  
“Papa, you go?”  
Wade fell silent, stared at Bea.   
“Yeah, I ... I have to ...”  
She looked sad and glanced at her toys briefly, then up to Wade as if she contemplated begging him to stay.   
”It’s to help, little Bea. There are some people who really need Papa’s help, so I need to go.”  
“Oh,” she just said and her brows furrowed. “You go, too, Daddy?”  
“N-no, I don't think so.”  
“You can help, too, it's okay,” she said with a smile. “I stay with Nanna May, I wait.”  
Peter smiled, grateful that she was such a brave big girl already.   
“We'll see, maybe I go. Maybe I stay with you and aunt May and we make lots of cookies.”  
“Yes!”  
Bea didn't ask any further for the rest of the day, and went down really fast, holding her bear tight. Peter watched her over the baby monitor for a while, but when she started to snore very softly, he was sure she was fast asleep. 

“You still wanna do tomorrow?” Peter asked and put the monitor in his night stand when he slipped into bed next to Wade, who had just checked his mails on his phone. Putting the device away, the older man nodded.   
“Sure, we’ll get a call soon enough. Let the little one have her fun,” he said while shimmying down into the pillows.   
“It's not like we're not going to enjoy ourselves,” Peter mentioned with a grin and Wade laughed quietly, kissing his lover's forehead when Peter cuddled up to his chest. 

Since she'd been so little the first time around, Peter and Wade decided to enroll Bea in another swim class. This time, they would really learn some technique to keep themselves above the surface, which was why Wade almost immediately agreed. They hadn't decided on getting a big pool installed permanently in the backyard, but for a few weeks each summer they'd probably have some blow-up version still.

“Dude, we could also totally have a jacuzzi,” the Merc giggled, his hands roaming up and down Peter's sides. “Gett'n all hot and bothered at night.”  
“As long as it's indoors, because I will definitely not get hot and bothered in front of all neighbors.”  
“Pff, what, are you not into that little thrill of exhibitionism?”  
“Only in front of you,” Peter joked and Wade laughed with him, peppering the left side of his face with little kisses, from his temple all the way down to his chin. They teased and kissed each other for some more, but then turned off the lights without anything happening, both of them worn out from the day and their minds in other places, too concerned with what might be ahead.

 

Although he put on a happy face in the morning and actually did enjoy preparing Bea's bag for swim class with her, Peter couldn't stop thinking about soon finding out where his DNA had been. And … what it might have been used for. What he might find. Who.   
“Daddy, you essited?” Bea asked when Peter folded her towel and gave it over to her to put into the bag.   
“Yeah, of course I'm excited. Are you? We're gonna have so much fun today.”  
“I'm essited,” she said with a smile, then suddenly Bea got up and walked around the bag. Her little hands felt light like feathers on Peter's shoulders, but so lovely when she hugged him.   
“Aw, thanks for the hug,” Peter said, slightly surprised, closing his arms around the little girl.   
“Daddy look like hugs,” she said, probably meaning that he looked like he _needed_ a hug. Which in turn meant that Peter didn't do as much of a good job at looking happy like he thought. That wasn't okay, he shouldn't let Bea worry about him, none of what happened was her fault. She deserved a great day and so he took a deep breath and pushed all worries aside, at least as far as possible.  
“Yeah, I do. Thank you. - Now, let's have lots of fun at the pool today, huh?”   
“Yeah!”

 

For the first lesson in their new toddler swim class, they could all freely move around the pool and explore, so that the kids would lose some of their fear of the new surroundings. While Wade sat on a bench next to the pool, Peter was in the water with Bea – they kept it like this most of the time because the chlorine in the water just further irritated Wade's skin. But the Merc did have Peter's camera with him, taking lots of pictures of Bea and Peter in the water.   
“Look, Daddy, look!” Bea said and pointed up to the boards after they'd gone down all the slides around the pool. The little girl even wanted to try out the biggest one, but thankfully this one was out of order during the morning classes. It wasn't like Peter himself wouldn't like to go, but he was pretty sure Bea was still too small for it.  
“You wanna jump?” Peter asked, smirking when Bea's eyes got wide and thinking he’d made a good joke.   
“Yes, pleaaase!” she squealed, surprising Peter with the answer. Well, he thought, she might not know how high up it really was. Deciding they could always just go back down, Peter agreed.   
“Okay, let's get up the ladder,” he said and effortlessly climbed up the first few steps with her.   
“You guys better be careful, think of my poor heart!” Wade called anxiously from the side.   
“Don't worry!” Peter giggled, and Bea just waved Wade happily. Yeah, she was quite the daredevil, and loved the rare times Peter would climb around with her.   
When they were on the board, Bea pointed up to the ones above.   
“No, Daddy! Higher!”  
“We'll start slow, okay? See if you like it, then we go higher.” If Wade's heart was strong enough for this, Peter added mentally. 

“Remember to take a deep breath when we jump, and then hold it. You ready?” Peter asked, toes around the edge of the board. He could easily stand like this for hours, even upside down. Bea nodded, clinging to Peter's neck. He didn't make a big deal out of jumping, so Bea wouldn't have time to be scared.   
He hugged her tight, they breathed in together and held their breaths, then jumped. Peter made sure to land in the water first so Bea had nothing more than a little dive. A second later he shot up again, taking a breath when they were on the surface.   
“Are you okay? Was that fun?” Peter asked and Bea giggled. She rubbed the water from her face with one hand, Peter helping her by picking a wet blonde strand of hair from her forehead.   
“Yeah! Again!”  
“Higher?”  
“Yeah!”

“Peter, don't you dare!” Wade yelled from the side when they climbed past the first board.   
“She asked for it! Don't worry!” Peter replied again, but this time he asked Bea if she still wanted it when they were on the board.   
“Yeah. Bea twy!”  
“No no no, baby, we can't do that,” Peter giggled nervously. Bea might have been fine to do it, but Wade would have gotten a heart attack. Also, Peter wasn't sure if he could take it, either. In his arms, she was safest she could be jumping down from somewhere.   
Out of the corner of his eyes, Peter saw Wade hold a hand in front of his face, only peeking through.   
“Last one, okay?”  
“Aww!”  
“We'll go play in the water then, so Papa can take some pictures,” Peter reminded and Bea waved Wade again, who looked like he was ready to come up there and get her. 

They jumped again, Bea laughing again when they came back up. She splashed in the water and laughed when Peter in return splashed some into her face.  
“Petey, please think of my poor heart,” Wade sighed when they were close, and he did look a bit pale under his scars.   
“Fun, Papa!” Bea insisted, pointing to the boards.   
“Yeah, I bet it is. But can you play here a bit, where I can see you? And, you know, where you're not like a thousand feet in the air,” Wade muttered under his breath.  
“We pway here, Daddy!” Bea then decided, reaching for one of the toys floating by in the water. The whole pool was littered with plastic fish, little balls or cups.   
While some of the kids were still crying and refusing to go any further into the water than with their feet, Peter swam all the way to the far end of the pool and back, Bea on his back, safely holding onto his neck. He didn't want to be that kind of parent, but he did feel pretty good when the swim teachers praised both of them for how well they did in the water, and for how much Bea trusted Peter. 

They had so much fun that Peter pretty much ignored his phone the whole morning until Bea went down for her first nap, when he saw that he'd already collected several missed calls and unanswered messages from the lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have one of those Tumblr things now, follow me If you like :D
> 
> [ Click here!](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/)


	52. Chapter 52

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chap is short, but the second half of chap 52 is tough stuff and I want to make sure I get everything across right. So, see you lovelies next week for another dose of Spideypool <3

For the next two days, Peter worked in the lab almost non stop, sleeping only a few hours every night. It was finally time to get the next mission ready, and by now so many teams had called in to help, messages came in round the clock from all over the world. Luckily they all understood the importance of the mission and waited for the date and time to attack, because they wanted to hit all bases at the same time.  
During the gruelling night shifts the teams were assigned to the possible locations in their area – sometimes two or three per team. Eventually they had decided on getting first response teams in – even though everyone knew that those were kill teams, nobody talked about it – and then have them get out and to the next base. The second response teams would then get in and clear out the base, destroy or confiscate data and free all hostages from the labs.  
Some teams in Africa and Asia had mutants who could teleport all of them, which was a huge advantage they planned to use.  
“Isn't it nice that we'll get them with the thing they want most? Mutants all over the place,” Preston snickered, typing away at the data packages they'd send out three hours before all operations started. They had a list of trusted team leaders assembled, and mission reports would come in automatically via special communicator units Stark had send out already.  
“Hopefully they won't get to know what hit them,” Julia replied from her workspace littered with vials and test tubes. She was currently assembling kits for the second response team to take with them and collect all kinds of samples they could. Even if they had to take tissue or fluids from dead bodies, the instructions were clear on that. 

There was no need for a call, no big moment of suspense. Peter just got back home late one evening, feeling drained in a way that no amount of sleep could cure. What he needed to get better was a success of the mission, and to know that they finally ended the suffering.  
Peter closed the door behind him quietly – it was already past Bea's bedtime, which didn't help at all to make him feel at least a bit better. He missed his little girl.  
“Hey, sweetie. Welcome home,” Wade said, taking off Peter's jacket and greeting him with a gentle kiss on the cheek.  
“Hi. We have everything ready,” Peter blurted out tiredly, leaning against Wade's shoulder the next second. He felt like passing out right then and there, sleep for days, but at the same time he tingled like his body live wire all over.  
“Okay,” Wade just replied, simple and accepting of the things life decided to throw at them. “Has Frank called you guys back?”  
“Yeah, he's on the team.”  
“Aw, great, can't wait to annoy the shit out of him!” Wade laughed, making Peter grin against his shoulder even though he didn't feel like it. Leave it to Wade to always tickle a smile out of him no matter the situation.  
“You going?” the Merc asked eventually, arms closing softly around Peter's shoulders.  
“Just in an emergency. I'll be in the lab with a few people to coordinate the mission. So I'll see you.”  
“Hey.”  
Peter looked up, because of course he wasn't able to hide how disappointed he was of himself. He wanted to help, wanted to be strong.  
But every time Peter thought about going back into one of the bases his skin began to pebble up with goosebumps and he could barely breathe, his heart pumping hard and fast in his chest and even the biggest room around him starting to feel like a coffin. They didn't talk about it much, but Peter had been checked out by the Team's doctors who had diagnosed him with PTSD.  
Giving it a name didn't make Peter feel any better about it.  
He was still ridden with guilt because he'd sit in the command central while his lover and so many more brave people fought.  
“Hey,” Wade said again, his hands now framing Peter's face. “Don't you dare beat yourself up over this. You do a great job, okay?”  
“I know,” Peter began but Wade cut him off with a quick shake of his head.  
“No, you don't. That's the problem. Look, I know … that you can't go with us. It's absolutely okay. You've pulled your weight already, now you be our backup. Do what you do best. Be smart and keep an eye out for us. - And for my gorgeous butt 'cause we can't have that hurt.”  
Peter huffed out a laugh and dropped his forehead to Wade's chest, smiling when Wade gently petted his hair.  
“Okay,” Peter just said, closing the small space between them and slipping his arms underneath Wade's, holding onto his lover's back. “And I'll make sure your butt gets home safe.”  
Wade's laugh vibrated against Peter's skin and he felt a soft kiss being brushed to his left ear.  
“Much appreciated. Love you.”  
“Love you, too. And … thanks.”  
“Always,” Wade promised and they held each other tight for long moments until they realized they were still standing in the hallway. “C'mon in, I'll heat up some food for you.”  
Peter smiled, feeling exhaustion drag heavily on him, and followed Wade into the kitchen, where he watched his lover prepare a meal for him. The baby monitor was on the kitchen island, because it looked like Wade had just been taking care of the dishes when Peter arrived. He could see Bea on the little screen, curled up in her bed, the blanket tucked safely around her, her little arms holding her stuffed bear close. Peter squinted and looked closer when he spotted a new stuffed toy in her bed, in the right side corner over her head.  
His heart lurched and all he wanted was to pull Bea in his arms when he saw that there was a tiny stuffed Spiderman toy amongst her usual cuddly friends. 

 

One day before the big mission, Peter and Wade went to the Zoo with Bea, looking at every single enclosure and even visiting for feeding time at the shark tank and at the monkey house. They had a family lunch at a fast food place, and Bea even got a balloon from one of the staff, which she took to aunt May's house. The little girl was so happy and bubbly, but just as they’d planned too busy to worry or notice anything strange.  
Peter and Wade brought her to bed in the evening just like every night, reading her a story and singing her songs. Of course she asked why she was sleeping at aunt May's house that night, so Peter and Wade shared a quick look.  
“Because you're going to have a great day with Nanna tomorrow. You gonna have so much fun,” Wade explained, running a hand softly over Bea's head, his fingers lingered on her hair.  
“And when you get back home, we're gonna make your bed a big girl bed, isn't that great?” Wade said, trying to change the topic, but Bea just looked up at him with her big blue eyes that always looked a bit too wise for her age.  
“Papa, you go help people?”  
Wade's shoulders sank and Peter stepped closer, kneeling in front of the crib so he could touch Bea's little hand, feel her fingers in his palm.  
“Yes. I have to go help people. They need help, you know.”  
“They're very sad right now, you know. Those people,” Peter added quietly after a moment, seeing Bea's eyebrows draw together as she tried to understand. “And when Papa and I go help them, they can be happy.”  
“Oh,” Bea said slowly, nodding as if to herself.  
“You're going to have lots of fun with Nanna May and we'll be back really soon,” Peter said, running his thumb over Bea's little hand.  
“You go, too, Daddy?”  
“Yeah, I'll help, too.”  
If not on site, Peter assumed he'd be in the lab most of the time.  
“Okay,” she simply said, just like Wade had before. She smiled and grabbed her bear from the bed. “I go night night now?”  
“Yeah, you do,” Wade replied with a giggle, caught as always by Bea's absolute cuteness. “You go night night and have lotsa sweet dreams. Gimme a kiss?”  
Bea reached up as Wade leaned into her crib, giving him a big loud smack.  
“I love you, my princess,” Wade whispered when he hugged Bea close. He kissed her cheeks, hugging her again, before Peter leaned in as well.  
“I love you, too,” Peter mumbled through the lump forming in his throat, kissing his girl and then putting her to bed. He was the first one out of the door because he didn’t trust himself to keep a straight face. Wade tucked Bea in and then left as well.  
They didn't talk much on the way home. Peter cleaned and did some chores to keep himself busy while Wade got his gear ready, cleaned and maintained all his weapons and sharpened his swords.  
“Should I take my own suit just in case? Y'know, in case the new one is a bit too tight around the goods,” he joked, making Peter smile weakly.  
“Yeah, that's a good idea. Take the boots and gloves, too. You'll have new ones ready, but you might like yours better.”  
“Breaking in new shoes is no good idea on that big of a mission. I mean, I can heal and all, but does that mean my delicate toesies have to be covered in blisters? I don't think so.”  
Peter wondered if Wade was really that lighthearted, doubted it actually, but didn't want to comment on it. If this was Wade's way to deal with what was to come – that he had to kill even though he didn't want to do that anymore – then so be it. Peter would try to smile and hope that some of his lover's optimism rubbed off on him. 

They spent the night sleeping only lightly, nerves tugging on both of them, holding each other tight to keep from trembling. Even before Peter's phone could blare its alarm both men slipped out of bed blearily, sharing a big mug of coffee with too much sugar for Peter's liking.  
It did the trick, though, and they were up and running, packing their gear and heading out for the subway an hour earlier than planned.  
“I can get you into the equipment storage and we can get you set up already, so at least it's time well spent,” Peter said, muffled against the collar of Wade's jacket, as they were shook around in the packed subway car. They were standing backed up into a corner, Wade's back to the wall, his arms slung around Peter's waist, so Peter could lean his head against Wade's chest.  
“Always good to have connections,” Wade replied, hidden well by his usual outfit of a hoodie and a baseball cap, his nose buried in Peter's hair.  
“Right?” Peter giggled and let his hands wander over Wade's back, down over the hem of his jeans and then into both back pockets on his jeans, giving his firm behind a squeeze.  
“Wowowowza Mr. Spidey, copping a feel? Oh my, I knew this groping thing was serious in NY subways but I never thought it'd happen to me!”  
They laughed together, staying as close as possible until they entered the Tower. Still holding hands, they went to the storage and Wade got his all-new costume.  
“I even helped with creating the fabric … well, helped might be a strong word, I had an idea to make something more durable,” Peter explained while he pulled the zipper on Wade's back up.  
“It feels great,” the Merc commented, moving this way and that. “Does my butt look big in this?”  
Peter smirked when Wade turned around, bending down just a little.  
“I get the feeling that you want me to say yes.”  
“Damn right I wanna! 'Cause I'm definitely bringing sexy back in this suit. Dayum.”

“C'mon, let me show you some new weapons Stark has designed for you,” Peter said, not feeling all that cheerful to quip back at his husband, so he just gestured over to a long table with all kinds of weaponry presented on it. Wade cooed and jumped around the display like a child on Christmas morning, even more excited when he found an array of gear with his name on the tags.  
“Do I get to keep them?” he asked, picking up two massive, identical pistols.  
“Probably.”  
“Nah, definitely. He's never gonna see those babies again,” Wade giggled, loading the guns up and stuffing the extra clips into the pouches on his belt. He put the safety on and stashed the weapons into their holsters on his thighs. Then he reached out for the assortment of knives available to every member of this special task force – Wade decided on a few big hunting knives and stuffed one of his pouches with smaller throwing knives, stating that he wanted to try something he'd seen in an Anime.  
“This one's also yours,” Peter mentioned, reaching out for a smaller, more stout looking pistol.  
“What's it do?”  
“It's a tazer gun, shooting soft but electrically charged bullets. In case you need to contain someone.”  
“That's great. Man, I'm all loaded and ready to go, huh?”  
“Yeah,” Peter said and couldn't help how heavy his heart got. He didn't want Wade to go. He didn't want to stay. He wanted nothing of this anymore, fear and anxiety shooting through him and almost forcing him to turn around, run and hide. He fought to stay put, smile at Wade and reach out to carefully hug him. “Come back safe,” Peter said, like so many times before when he'd seen Wade off to one of his jobs.  
“Promise,” the Merc replied immediately, kissing Peter's cheek. Peter turned his head minutely so they could press their mouths together, then he stepped closer and slung both arms around Wade, only able to talk when he hid his face on Wade's chest.  
“I … I want to help.”  
“I know. And you do.”  
“I feel so … _weak_ ,” Peter admitted and tears stung in his eyes because he was so disappointed and frustrated with himself. It had always been so easy for him to go out and punch whoever was posing as the biggest villain. But whenever he thought about going to one of those bases again … all he could see where his own shaking hands, covered in blood, holding the dagger and slicing through … Bea's mother's corpse.  
“Sweetie, you do a great job. It's … - you know what, fuck it if you can't come with us, we need people telling us the way 'n shit, too! I mean, we'd be running around there like headless chicken if it weren't for you guys monitoring!”  
Peter just nodded, thinking what good it did that he was Spiderman when he couldn't even help people in need.  
“Sweetie, you did so much already. You … saved our daughter. That's … the greatest fucking thing ever, I think you've done your part. It's okay now.”  
“I keep thinking maybe next time but I really hope there won't be a next time.”  
“Your next time will be as the friendly neighborhood Spiderman, alright? As the Avenger who little kids got on their PJs. - By the way I ordered one for Bea.”  
Peter huffed out a laugh, leaning against his husband.  
“She's gonna love them. - I won't yap about it anymore, okay? Sorry.”  
“Nah, don't be. I wanna know what you're thinking, always. You go be a hero here and I go kill some assholes, back to the roots!” Wade said cheerfully and smacked a loud kiss to Peter's cheek again.  
“Heh, yeah … kinda,” Peter replied, letting Wade's cheerful mood – whether it was real or just pretend didn't matter right now – infect him. 

It didn’t take long for the armory to fill up with people, and Peter was called up into the lab sooner than he’d liked.  
“See you in a bit,” Wade just said quietly, kissing Peter’s cheek.  
“Be safe,” the younger man replied, not caring about the crowd around them when he pulled Wade close, kissed him on the lips and hugged him.  
“Always,” Wade just whispered, sliding his arms around Peter and squeezing him to his chest before stepping back and shooting a quick look at the others, who were mindful enough to focus on their weapons. Wade should get going, they both knew that.  
Instead of letting him, Peter grabbed Wade’s hands with his and squeezed them gently, not knowing what else to say. Wade smirked, lifted their interlocked hands and kissed Peter’s knuckles. He didn’t say anything, just turned slowly and walked off to a private elevator that would get them all to a waiting jet. 

 

A few minutes later Peter was at the lab, grabbing a control tablet and readying himself for the night ahead. Teams all over the world prepared the same way, and on a screen in a far corner of the lab, connections to their operating labs started to blink green.  
“Are we ready?” Peter asked, getting to his work space.  
“All set, waiting for take off,” Preston said, typing away on the last few modifications to the recording programmes that would accompany each of the heroes on site. 

 

They all watched as the “Avengers Special Ops Unit” boarded the jet.  
There was the intimidating figure of Punisher upfront, the usual white skull on his costume had been changed slightly with the new version, making it dark grey. Wade followed, his new Deadpool suit showing not the usual bright red, but a burgundy version amongst the black. The Black Widow went into the jet after Wade, her pitch black catsuit adorned with weapons of all kind. Behind her, the Winter Soldier walked up the ramp, a black mask over his nose and mouth, sniper rifle on his back, his metal arm the brightest spot in the group of dark-clad assassins.  
Because that was actually what they were.  
Peter knew that some of the other Avengers members didn’t think too highly of them. But to him, they were heroes, every single one.  
They could do things that none of the other team members could.  
Sure, they killed. But someone _had_ to.  
To end the suffering, to end this cat-and-mouse game that was played on the backs of innocent women and children. 

There were others, more fighters, some of them that wanted to stay as anonymous as possible and just assured their help because they heard of it from their mutant friends. All in all four of “Special Ops Units” were in action that night, backed up by countless small teams of Avengers, X-Men, solo fighters, doctors, nurses, caretakers, and whoever was willing to give a hand. 

 

Peter turned and went to his working station for the night, watching through the security cameras as the men and women all over the world strapped into their seats. They all began the very same routine right when the jets started.  
They took out their weapons, the smaller ones first – daggers, knives and handguns – examined, polished and oiled everything, despite everything already being in perfect condition. Peter had an audio line as well, but there was barely any chatter, everybody working their own routine, probably to calm down and get a clear mind for what was to come.  
Peter now saw that a lot of them also had machine guns and strapped rounds of bullets in a belt around their chests or hips.  
Next they all went to their special weapons – Wade polished his katanas and carefully secured them on his back, testing how well he could reach in his new suit. 

He had his mask pulled off, bunched up in his lap, and leaned his head back against the metal hull of the jet to stare up into nothing. Peter watched his husband’s profile, wondering what might be going on in his mind.  
He saw Wade pull out his phone from one of his pouches, taking it out of one of Bea’s tiny socks to keep it from getting scratched. Peter smiled because Wade still kept that sock, even though it no longer fit Bea. The matching one was on a ring attached to Peter’s locker keys. 

Wade typed, and a moment later Peter’s phone buzzed.  
_” Love you both. See you in a bit. Kiss Bea for me if you can."_  
Peter smiled down at the little screen, knowing that he probably wouldn't get home to check on Bea, no matter how long the mission took. It might very well be a few days or nights, depending on how complicated taking down the bases was and how many people had to be rescued.  
Bea was safe and sound with aunt May, the two of them under constant watch. Their little girl would have lots of fun and hopefully not worry about them.

Opening his picture folder, Peter flicked through some he’d taken whenever he was alone with Bea, and saved to surprise Wade or aunt May with them. Now he picked one from a few weeks ago, where she wanted to water to help water the plants in aunt May’s garden. She looked so perfect and her smile was just like Wade’s.  
It was sent quickly, and Peter watched Wade open the file on his phone.  
He looked at it for a few minutes, then locked his phone and stashed it away in one of his pouches. Just before Wade pulled on his mask, Peter saw a faint smile on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're into Stucky, maybe you wanna check out my take on what happened post Civil War? Click [ here. ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7468542/chapters/16972410)
> 
> I also have a Tumblr, [ follow me ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/) if you like <3


	53. Chapter 53

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late night upload ftw :D Took forever to complete, but you got an extra long chap out of it, that I hope you like. We're getting into Wade's head a bit, and see how it's like for him to come back from such a mission.  
> See you next week, take care and enjoy reading <3

Wade looked around the jet and tried to get into the right headspace for the night. He knew that maybe two or three years ago he would’ve loved an opportunity like this – kick some ass and do some good alongside the Avengers – but now he just felt off.   
He knew why they were killing tonight, and it was for the greater good, for the super great good to be precise. But still, Wade couldn’t help but remember that he’d sworn to himself, to Peter and in some way also to Bea to stop killing.   
Wade had always wondered why Peter would fight, but not kill, what was the big line he wouldn’t cross.   
Ever since he’d first seen Bea, Wade understood.   
It was about being good. About being a role model. About not having blood on the hands that fed your baby. 

The thing was too big already, wedged into military and the health system so tightly that there was only one way to fix it: kill everybody. 

“Just for you, baby girl,” Wade said to himself, thinking of Bea, of her gorgeous smile and her wonderful laugh, of how perfect her fingers felt when they held onto his. For her and for all the children like her he’d kill again. 

The jet began descending over their first target and the Winter Soldier got ready. Wade would go with him this time, then meet up with some of the others to attack the next base. As soon as one of them was done, the jet circled back to pick them up and drop them again.   
The two men stood side by side at the back hatch of the jet, ready to jump once the jet was close enough to the ground so that they wouldn’t break anything. Not that they couldn’t handle the odd fracture, but it would slow them down unnecessarily. 

There was a faint thrumming in Wade’s head all of a sudden, like his brain was starting an old lawnmower or something.   
vrrrm   
vrrrrm   
vrrrrrrrrrm   
VRRRRRRRRM 

Wade squeezed his eyes shut and groaned, shaking his head minutely.   
“You okay?” the Winter Soldier asked next to him, his voice muffled by the mask covering the lower half of his face.   
“Sure, Mr. Winters, don’t you worry. Just got some brainfreeze from being too close to you, ‘m sure your boyfriend knows the feel.”  
“Shut up.”  
Wade grinned underneath his mask, because by now it was an open secret that the good Captain America tossed Frosty’s salad from time to time. His grin only faltered a little when there was a voice appearing inside his head, soon followed by the other one.

_Hey, remember us?_  
 **I think he forgot about us because he’s, like, super killed us or something.**  
 _He loves us._  
 **He’s just afraid of his feelings! – Hey, are we killing somebody tonight?**  
“Yeah, we are.”

 

The first base was pretty easy, set in an allegedly abandoned factory of some sort, the old production halls for something involving chemicals turned into massive labs huddled in plastic foil to prevent contamination. Well, they weren’t prepared for a contamination Deadpool-style, because when Wade was done with them, their nice white lab bubbles were splattered over and over in all shades of red.   
“And on this episode of Home Improvement:” he announced when he sliced his way into the last lab bubble and jumped in, whirling his blades through the air and causing a tornado of blood and tissue.   
**Awesome! Much punchline, such fun, each kill 100 % Doge approved!**  
 _And maybe also by some newer memes if you let us out more._  
“Lett'n it all out today, so you best be enjoyin' yourselves, guys.”  
 **One night only? Bitch, this isn't Dreamgirls! Let us the fuck out!**  
“Shut up.”

The factory was just some kind of drug lab for the bases, so there were no hostages to retrieve, just crates to fill with samples and hard drives from the computers around. And if some of the unlucky minions cleaning up after them hurled their breakfast back up after seeing the Workspace Makeover: Deadpool special edition, well, then that was their problem, not his.   
Right when the minion jet landed – it should really be blue and yellow, and the guys should have goggles, too – another one picked Wade back up to bring him to the next place he got to annihilate. 

That next one was a big fish in the pond, a massive underground structure with above ground military facilities. No doubt those fuckers had bought and bribed their way in.   
**But military means there could be a tank somewhere, right? I'll say tank 'em!**  
“There are people here, you fuckwit, so shut your face.” Wade muttered to the voice in his head while shoving a new clip into his gun. The jet picked up the Winter Soldier along the way and it seemed like Black Widow was already at the site, trying to hack into the control centre to disable any kind of explosives around. 

The two men jumped out the jet and headed for two of the nearest buildings, finding no entrances to the underground levels, but a lot of scientists and armed forces to take out. Wade ripped some cables from the ceiling and strangled three people at once, then whipped around to slice open another one wanting to run out on him. There was one more that Wade cut up into pieces with his swords, only satisfied when the room was drenched red.   
He went back outside to see the Winter Soldier kick someone's head clean off. That guy sure didn't skip leg day. 

A silver shimmer caught his attention and Wade saw three people in lab coats run away from him towards a helicopter landing pad, each of them carrying a silver briefcase.   
“Fuck, they’re bailing!” Wade called, running after the scientists.   
“Get them, we’ll clean up here!” Mr. Winter called, running into the biggest building, on the tracks of someone carrying an ammunitions box. Him and The Black Widow would take the place in seconds, so Wade turned and ran with all he had. Also, with Black Widow looking the way she did – fucking gorgeous, that was – the hostages would probably listen to her more than some creepy dudes loaded with guns and with masks on their faces.   
Well, old Mr. Winters had probably never been the charmer, but Wade was sure he could get at least a few to listen to him.   
_Or just drag them out by the hair, whatever works._  
“Yeah, well, whatever gets them outta here,” Wade muttered, falling into a sprint to catch up to the goons in their white coats. Seeing this always made his blood boil just a little and now he let it happen, allowed the rage to fill him up to the brim. The slowest one landed face first on the concrete runway, his entire skull cracking open like an overly ripe watermelon when Wade punched him into the ground.   
The second one turned and reached for the briefcase, maybe not surprised to see his colleague splattered all over, but Wade quickly whipped out a hunting knife and cut his arm off. He screamed, of course he did, like a chick in a horror movie, and fell to the ground when Wade whirled around, letting the knife plow down right through the guy's other arm.   
“Crazy child molesting scientists say 'aaaah'!”  
“Aaaah!” repeated the guy as he stared right into Wade's gun, before exploding his twisted brain everywhere. 

“Oh oh, what do you think you're doing, Mister?” Wade asked with a dark chuckle when he saw that the last man had reached the helicopter and was trying to detach the last cable holding it on the ground. His hands shook and fumbled with the clasp and he shook it desperately the closer Wade got to him.   
“What, you scared? You gonna wet your pants? Hm? - Tell me, how's it feel to be at the receiving end of a big ol' load of pain?”  
“You'll never get all of us!”  
“Oh, but we will. But you'll be too busy, like, with being dead and all, to witness. Last words?”  
“Fuck you!”  
“Maybe later,” Wade grinned, taking his sweet time then, first shooting both the guy's knees, then his stomach, letting him crouch around on the ground for a moment, and then giving him a bullet to the head. 

He ran around the perimeter to check the other helicopters and some buses that were probably used to bring in workers, but nobody attempted to make another getaway.   
“You guys got everything?” Wade asked into his comm to his team mates. They both agreed so Wade called in the jet that would distribute to yet another base. There were already some smaller mutant teams on the ground, private helicopters and people flying all by themselves dotting the sky here and there. 

Wade didn't pay them any mind, he was too busy listening to his voices who inquired as to why in the world he hadn't looked for a tank. 

 

Back at the lab Peter and his colleagues worked on high speed, typing on keyboards or swiping their hands over holographic screens. They could watch all of the special ops members, but there was barely enough time for a quick glance, and most of the people in command centre weren't fighters, so they had a hard time watching. A specialized A.I. took over most of the surveillance, sending out medical teams and giving the go for the backup teams as soon as the eliminations were done. 

After a few hours the US missions slowly but steadily wrapped up, which meant it was getting high time to issue the follow up support. Hostages were sorted into medical facilities, security staff was issued to be on watch around the clock, several prepared orphanages took in their first little guests.   
At command centre, all incoming material – video and audio data as well as early mission reports – had to be sorted and saved to review later.   
There was another shift of lab staff waiting to begin their work, which would be watching every single second of video, reading every word of the reports and then filing it, writing conclusive reports for each mission and ordering the next steps to be taken – whether this was new equipment, visits to medical or psychological evaluations or other helpful trainings for each of the team members. 

Peter was kind of glad that he could go when they'd saved everything, because the snippets he got to see from the US and other places around the world were enough for him.   
The reports trickling in from other locations around the globe were even worse than expected.

There was a small dungeon-like facility hidden deep in the old underground tunnels in Paris, France, where dozens of women and children of all ethnicity and ages were held like cattle under indescribable conditions.

There was a whole village set deep into the jungles in southwest Africa that kidnapped women and girls to sell them off to the base keepers. Some of the hostages looked like tourists, all of them were gagged and bound by the wrists or ankles to racks in the middle of the village, no kind of shelter available. 

There were bases in the middle of nuclear fallout zones in Russia and Japan, where the scientists probably hoped the radiation would help their experiments. The scientists quarters were set up in bunkers and all the staff wore radiation proof suit, the only ones exposed to sometimes lethal doses of radiation were the women and children.   
The results of the experiments were … shocking, to say the least. Eventually Peter had to close the transmission from the nuclear sites because his stomach lurched again and again whenever he saw what the teams uncovered. Some of his colleagues had excused themselves hastily and fled for the toilet or just the nearest trash can in a corner. 

The absolute worst was a base in the eternal ice, hidden deep in a glacier in Antarctica. The scientists, or those who called themselves that, had gotten the “failed subjects” from the other bases worldwide. Some still alive and just deemed unfit for the brainwashing needed to turn them into fighting zombies, some dead or their lifeless bodies depending on machinery to keep the heart and lungs working.   
Some of the bodies were terribly deformed as a result of the DNA experimentation. Arms or legs were missing or disproportionately big. Those were taken off and replaced with something fitting that the “comatose subjects” wouldn't need anymore. The teams only found one inmate per sterile cell, chained down onto a hospital bed and wired to dozens of machines, skin pulled taut over swollen flesh and skin a sickly grey from weeks of medication and operations. There was a child with two heads, barely able to do more than sit in its bed and wheeze. Another video showed a being – one could only guess it had been a human form one day – with six arms and a horribly distorted face.   
Actually the base was in the perfect location for experiments like this, because there was no artificial cooling needed. The bodies were just lined up inside round structures outside the main facility, waiting to be harvested.   
Peter'd never seen something so sick and twisted. 

This very moment guarded mansions and hospital wings all over the world filled with the victims of these monsters, the first few DNA data packs filling a database on a small screen. Actually there was no real hurry to identify the women and children, but Peter still ordered one of the interns to hook up another server to that computer and have a search running to match them up with everyone registered with the Avengers or other mutant databases they had access to.  
“And what do I do if there's a match?” the young man asked, his borrowed lab coat looking too big on him, kind of like a child playing with its parents clothes. Or maybe Peter was just feeling too old next to him, even older now after the things he'd seen that night.   
“Save the matches and just leave them on the server, we'll make the calls next week,” he said and the intern nodded.  
“Yes, sir.”

 

The jet's rear closed with a loud thud, then an eerie silence settled over all passengers. They buckled into the seats lining the outer walls, and an assistant placed boxes in front of each of them to put their gear into. The bottom of the boxes was probably magnetic, since they didn't slide one bit when the jet took flight.  
Wade noticed the bloody, muddy footsteps trailing from the back of the jet to the seats. He looked at his own boots caked with human remains and dirt, sticking a bit to the floor with each step. Even though he knew the material of his new suit didn't permit this, but Wade was convinced he felt the fabric stick to his skin as well, soaked all the way through with blood.   
“We're going to circle around a bit and then land at a safehouse, from there you'll be brought back into the city individually,” the assistant informed them, pausing to listen to something coming out of his earpiece, then he hurried back into the cockpit. 

Forcing himself to move, Wade began taking out his guns and what was left of his rounds and knives, dropping them into the box. Shiver after shiver went through him and he grit his teeth, trying to calm the fuck down and get himself together while he was still around people. He undid his belt and wanted to reach into the pouches, but stopped when he saw the state of his gloves.   
Wade's shaky hands fumbled with the clasp of his new gloves, lined with some nice, very silky fabric that didn't irritate his skin. The outer material was dark and shiny with blood and god knew what else, and he was glad to drop them into the biohazard crate to have them cleaned.  
He took out his phone, glad it was still there and suddenly filled with relief when he saw Bea's little sock. Yeah, now things would get better. Kids like her would be as happy as she was now. Safe, loved.   
Frank nodded towards his hands holding the phone, the small movement drawing Wade's attention to him.   
“What's with that?”  
“I got a daughter now,” Wade replied right away, quiet and just between the two of them, mainly because the other two looked deeply lost in thought. Frank looked at him for a long moment, probably piecing two and two together.   
“From there?”  
“Yeah.”  
Frank nodded and looked into the distance for a bit. Wade faintly remembered that he had a daughter of his own, but he never said what happened to her. Wade guessed that she wasn't alive anymore, just because of the haunted look in the other man's eyes.   
“Is she okay?”  
“She's fine, yeah. Thank god. She'd a real … cutie.”   
Wade couldn't help but grin at that, because it was true. He swiped his thumb over the glass screen of his phone to activate it, then opened a folder of family pictures. The newest one showed Bea in aunt May's garden. She wore her new bright red dress, her hair was done in in those two little buns to each side of her head and decorated with a red bow on each side. She held a little watering can and looked like the perfect little angel.   
Wade sighed, overcome with love for this little person, and longing so so much for a hug from her. 

Frank huffed and muttered something under his breath, then he pulled out a packet of cigarettes and held one out to Wade. Usually he didn't care about nicotine … but after a day like that … Wade took one and the lighter as well, briefly showing Frank the picture when he gave the little silver box back. 

 

_”Where are you? I'm on my way to town rn”_ Wade messaged just about an hour after sunrise, which Peter only knew because the very last team just boarded their jet, their live video feeds showing a pink and orange horizon.   
_”Still at the lab, go on home, meet you there. Love you,”_ Peter typed quickly, before putting his phone aside and continuing his work as fast as possible.   
_”Looks like it’s gonna take a while, security and all.”_ Wade mentioned, which Peter only read when walking past his work station to one of the bigger screens. 

 

When Peter finally got to leave the tower and web himself home – with his Spidey mask on and his backpack with his work things securely webbed to his back – he found that he'd actually been away longer than Wade.   
“Hi,” he greeted when he climbed in through the window, pulling off his mask and throwing it to the sofa haphazardly.   
“Hi,” Wade replied, his voice rough and sounding tired. “All done?”  
“For me, anyways. There are round the clock shifts from now, I'll be back in tomorrow night, so I can bring you guys breakfast,” Peter said, wanting nothing more than to talk to Bea, but their little girl had hopefully been asleep for the past few hours, so he'd have to be patient. 

Walking up to Wade, who leaned against the kitchen island, Peter tiptoed to kiss him, but jerked his head back in surprise when he smelled alcohol and just a hint of cigarette smoke. Right away Wade turned his head to the side, a hand covering his lips.   
“Sorry,” he mumbled behind his hand, suddenly looking ashamed. “I … I wanted to …”  
It’s been maybe a year or more that Wade had any hard stuff, so Peter knew it’d been necessary. His team mates probably offered, understandable after such a mission.  
“It’s okay. You don't have to explain yourself. Don't worry.”  
“Please, don't leave me alone with Bea until ... I’m sober again, okay?”  
That question alone let Peter guess that there'd been more things involved than just alcohol and normal cigarettes, but he wasn't angry about it. Whatever helped them to not letting the things they'd seen that night haunt them.   
“I won't. She’s with aunt May until tomorrow, it’s just us.”  
Wade nodded, his eyes darting around. Peter could feel the older man’s pulse underneath his fingertips, pounding away a bit too fast for them just standing there together.   
“Honey ... wait here,“ Peter suddenly said, following an idea. Wade needed to be calmed down, craved it actually, Peter knew. They'd been together for so long now, had started their relationship when Wade had still worked as a mercenary. Peter didn't have that big of a problem with it, once he got to know Wade better and understood his motives. Maybe, if things had been just a bit different, Peter might have wound up on a similar path.   
After all, Wade just used his powers to do good, in his own way. 

And sometimes, like with the bases, the only possible way to stop suffering was killing those in charge.

He got some of the nice bourbon they kept for special occasions, poured a full glass on ice, just enough so that it would get Wade a bit more relaxed. They had both seen a lot that night, and they needed to unwind. It was just the two of them for the next hours, nobody to even hear them.

“Drink,” Peter insisted, holding the glass out to Wade and eventually closing his fingers around it forcefully when the older man didn't move.   
“Petey, what the-“  
“Drink,” Peter repeated softly, 

Wade gasped and moaned quietly, leaning back against the kitchen counter while Peter reached into his pants, closing a hand around his quickly filling erection. Peter saw him take a sip, then another, of the golden liquid.  
Wade hissed when Peter closed his fist around him, pumping slowly a few times and swiping the sensitive tip with his thumb.  
“You … don't have to ...”  
“I know. I want to. You need it, don't you?”  
“Uh …,” Wade sighed and squeezed his eyes shut, nodding slowly. He huffed out a breath through his nose and took another sip slowly. “I do,” he mumbled, his breath fogging up the inside of the glass.   
“Good. Then let's get to the bedroom.”  
“Okay.”

Peter took Wade's hand in his, leading the way. Wade looked about ready to pass out, but there was a distinct strain around his shoulders, and still this haunted look around his eyes. Peter was determined to make it vanish before Wade would get even a minute of sleep, hoping to lessen the chances for nightmares.   
It wasn't even all that selfless of him. Peter felt the need, too. He wanted to touch, to be touched, and to feel the love that had almost died inside him that night. This time alone now, detached from the world in their own home, was like a much needed glass of cold water for someone trapped in the desert. 

It was messy, and a bit too rough, but they both needed just that. Clothes were tugged off impatiently and their kisses were all tongue and teeth, hard, needy. They groped each other as they fell onto the bed, pushed the blankets aside hastily.  
Peter groaned when Wade roughly pushed two fingers inside of him right away, the lube dripping onto the sheets. 

 

Peter could only hold on to Wade's shoulders, let him take everything, plow into Peter's body and just let go. Peter on the other side was happily giving up control and let himself be moved this way and that, thrown onto the bed and filled up.   
The bed crashed into the wall over and over again, almost drowning out their moans and gasps. Wade's hands left red marks on Peter's ankles when he lifted them onto his shoulders, running down his thighs and holding onto his hips. He kept pushing them together harder and harder, panting against Peter's skin, his face hidden against Peter's collarbone.   
“Close …,” he just managed to breath out, and Peter didn't even have enough brain capacity left, he just nodded, clinging to Wade's shoulders.   
All of a sudden Wade's hands slid onto Peter's back and he lifted the younger man up when he yelped in surprise. Wade slammed into him a few times and then all but threw him onto the bed, both of them coming hard, Peter with a startled cry, Wade with a groan. 

 

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” he mumbled against Peter's sweaty skin over and over again, his breathing still ragged.   
“It's okay,” Peter whispered, running his hands over Wade's back, shoulders and head, caressing him softly. Although his breathing evened out eventually, there were little tremors running through him and Peter kissed his head, not saying anything until Wade backed up a little. He sniffled, running a hand underneath his nose and looking shy.  
“I love you,” he mumbled, kissing Peter's shoulder, the gratitude evident in his voice. Peter had told him several times that he was absolutely okay with doing things like this after missions, hell, today he had even needed it himself. But now wasn't the time for any lectures, so Peter just turned his head to the side and kissed Wade's temple.   
“I love you, too. You wanna take a shower?”   
Considering the question for a moment, Wade nodded and they got up, padding over to the bathroom where they held onto each other for long minutes under the warm spray of water, letting it wash away the memories of horror that followed them. 

 

So the world hadn't turned into a post apocalyptic wasteland filled with crazy rapists and mad scientists holding nuclear mutated dogs on leashes. Wade was glad to see the sun sparkle down onto their usual world, into their bedroom, onto Peter's bare back.   
The younger man was still sleeping and Wade watched him for a moment, a smile pulling up the corners of his mouth when he saw Peter's messy hair sticking up in all directions, his arms clutching the pillow underneath his head tightly. 

He got out of bed eventually to get to the bathroom and then start the coffee machine. He was just about to set the table for breakfast – happily settling back into routine – when the doorbell rang.   
Wade grinned when Bea greeted him with a big smile and a bouquet of colorful flowers.   
“We were farmer market, Papa! We see fishy!” she said, bouncing up and down next to aunt May, who added with a quiet smile that it had been trouts in huge aquariums, and some crabs and lobsters. Bea didn't know they were for eating – she wasn't exactly fond of fish other than fishsticks – but it was nice to know she enjoyed herself.   
“Oh, how cool. And you brought flowers?” Wade said, taking the bouquet and placing it on the kitchen island.   
“Yes! For you and Daddy. Where's Daddy?” she asked, all energetic and sparkling eyes. Wade's heart grew about ten times just from seeing her, and he asked for a hug. Bea giggled and let herself be lifted up into Wade's arms, holding on tight and kissing him on the cheek loudly.   
“Daddy's still sleeping, wanna go tell him to wakey wakey?”  
“Yeah!”  
Wade laughed when Bea ran off to the bedroom, then turning back to aunt May.   
“Come on in, I'll get some breakfast ready.”  
“Thank you, sweet boy, but I can't. I have an appointment in an hour,” she said, mentioning that they'd gotten some pastries and wraps at the market for breakfast.   
“Ok, but then we'll have lunch tomorrow?” Wade offered, always happy to have his family around.   
“Absolutely. I'll bring dessert and you can't tell me otherwise,” she said quickly and Wade laughed, but agreed because he wasn't one to talk back to aunt May.   
He thanked her for taking care of Bea and hugged her. Just as Wade closed the door, Peter came around the corner into the living room, wearing just a pair of boxers and carrying Bea on one arm.   
“Morning,” he said, his voice still rough from sleep, and kissed Wade's cheek. “Somebody woke me up. You guys ready for breakfast?”  
“Yay!”  
“Bea and Nanna May brought us some great breakfast and flowers, does the little princess wanna help me put them in a vase?” Wade offered, Bea agreeing happily while Peter went to finish setting the table.   
Halfway through his preparations Peter noticed they were all out of milk.   
“I'll run to the store real quick, you guys go ahead and try all those yummy things,” he said to Bea, who'd looked a bit pouty at the prospect of not getting any milk.  
“Yeah, I'll definitely have to have one of those chocolate buns,” Wade said, carefully placing the pastries on a big plate and the wraps on another. Bea was at her play area, where she pulled out some toys to play with later. 

When the table was all ready, Wade decided that he might as well jump into the shower really quick until Peter was back, so he could take care of Bea later.   
“Bea, sweetie, you play nice, I'll be right back, okay?”  
“Yeah, I play,” she said, sitting down in the middle of the room to play with some Barbie dolls.   
Wade smiled at her, so glad to have his best girl around again, then went to get some fresh clothes in the bedroom. 

The moment he stepped into the hallway he felt something was wrong. There was a stinging headache beginning to gnaw at his brain, making him queasy and a little dizzy.   
**Now don't be a little sissy, let's have some fun!**  
“No.”  
 _I think he doesn't want us around at home._  
 **We live here, too. What a shitty roommate you are. Come on, you lazy fucker, screw the Daddy stuff and let's kill some people!**  
“No,” Wade repeated, feeling tightness spreading through his chest, out of breath from just one word.   
_He's gotten all uptight on us._  
“Go away.”  
 **Nah, we're staying. And there's nothing you can do about it. No-thing! NO-THING! NOOOOTHING!**

Wade felt himself crumble under all the noise in his head, feeling bad like he hadn't in months. The voices were screaming at him, their words muddled so Wade couldn't understand them, so loud that he slumped down onto the bedroom floor.   
His heart began racing and his hands that had found their way onto his head, clutching it tight to keep it from bursting, trembled. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, he-  
“Papa?”   
Oh no.   
Oh god, no.   
Bea couldn't see him like this, she would be scared.   
“Bea … get Daddy …” Wade ground out, feeling like he'd let Bea down because he'd always wanted to be strong for her.   
“You sick, papa?” she asked and her voice came from far away through all the noise in his head. Wade didn't know what to reply, couldn't even get his brain to function for more than a moan.   
“Please … get Daddy ...” he breathed and heard her little steps, but instead of going away they came closer. “Bea!” he warned, desperate and hurting, ashamed as well that she had to see him like this. 

“Papa, it's gonna be okay,” she said softly, just like he did when she had a nightmare or fell on the playground.   
Wade's whole body began to shake and he felt like throwing up. A shock went through him when he felt Bea's tiny, warm hands on his bald head, right next to his hands.   
“It hurts here?” she asked in her sweet little voice, speaking quietly because she assumed it might hurt him if she didn't. She was right.   
“Yeah … get Daddy,” Wade tried again, tears collecting in his eyes. Bea knew how to call Peter, grab the phone from the small table in the living room and press one to have his cell on speed dial. Two was Wade's cell, three was aunt May and four was the Avengers emergency line. She knew all of this, why didn't she do it?!  
“Gonna be okay, papa,” Bea whispered now and when Wade opened his eyes just a fraction he saw her tiny feet in front of his face, stared at the stars printed on her socks. 

Then, something happened. Like opening the window in an overheated room, letting cold air rush in.   
Just in Wade's brain.   
He gasped, his eyes flying open now.   
The next moment, all the pain was gone. There was silence. 

“Bea?”  
“Yeah?”  
“What … what did you do?”  
“I dunno … all better now? Here, all better,” she said sweetly and kissed Wade's head. 

“Bea ... what ...,” Wade mumbled and sat up, then looked at the little girl who was smiling at him happily. She still patted his bald head, not caring about his sweaty skin. “Baby, tell me what you did there,” he said, no questions she could evade. Bea cocked her head to the side and looked sad all of a sudden.   
“You hurt, Papa. I make it better. It's better, right?”  
“Yes, it's better. Thank you,” Wade said automatically, because how could he scold her for something that good? She smiled and hugged Wade.   
“You lay down Papa, I call Daddy. He make you tea.”

Wade was left sitting stunned on the bedroom floor, his clothes sticky with sweat, feeling winded and thrown off, albeit a whole lot better. He heard Bea take her little stepping stool from the kitchen to the telephone table, press a number on the landline phone and then talk to Peter. She came back a moment later with a kitchen towel in her little hands.   
“Daddy come home soon. We wait for him, okay?” she said, sounding so gentle and sweet and just so perfect that Wade wanted to cry. She did this. She made him feel better, _healed_ him.   
And now here she was, kneeling on the floor next to him, carefully dabbing his forehead with a towel.   
“You feel better? Daddy said we wait here,” she repeated, maybe thinking that he wanted to get to the bathroom and wash his face, or lay down somewhere.   
“Yeah, I'm so much better, thank you. We'll wait for Daddy,” Wade replied weakly, just sliding back so he could lean against the bed. Bea followed him and kept him company until Peter came practically running through the apartment.   
He didn't ask what happened, maybe wanting to avoid the topic in front of Bea, but she told him all on her own accord. 

“Papa got sick, Daddy! I help, so he better now! We waited, patient, Daddy!” she said, hopping along to the living room with them. Peter had an arm slung around Wade's waist and was helping him lay down on the cushions.   
“Well done, my love, you did everything right. You called me like we told you, you did great,” Peter praised, carefully stroking a hand over Wade's head. “Do you want some water?”  
“Yes, please,” Wade answered, still feeling off but so loved it made a lump form in his throat.   
“No, Papa need tea! He need get better tea!”  
“Oh, then I'll make a lot of tea for him, but first he can have water, okay?”  
“Yeah!”

While Peter went to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water, Bea went to her room.  
She returned to the couch a minute later, her snuggle blanket and bear in her arms. Wade watched her place her pink blanket over his chest, carefully tucking him in, then she pushed the bear into the crook of Wade’s arm.   
“Here, all better. Now you drink tea and go night night.”  
“Thank you so much Doc McStuffins.”  
“You welcome,” she said happily and climbed onto the sofa with him, pushing her legs underneath the blanket so her knees swung over Wade's feet.

They watched some cartoons together and Peter did bring tea for all of them, and then brought breakfast over to the coffee table because Bea didn't want to leave Wade's side. The voices never once made a reappearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr! [ Follow me ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/) if you like <3


	54. Chapter 54

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thursday chap on a Friday today XD I'm a bit short on time, so I'll just leave the chap here real quick, have fun reading <3

Thankfully Wade was good as new the next day, so Peter got to bring Bea to bed and then leave work work, taking over the night shift without worrying about his family. Wade had told him what Bea had done, and this just served to further support Peter's theory that Bea had some kind of healing powers that she could project, in addition to making things fly. 

Armed with a big cup of takeout coffee, Peter went to the lab and started sifting through the mountains of data that had accumulated throughout the day. It turned out that the last night shift barely grazed the tip of the iceberg, and were flooded with even more reports and requests from mutants all over the world wanting to know if their DNA had been found. The option to register their DNA samples anonymously, with just a number given to each sample, had been taken up big time, the data collection already having to be maintained by a small A.I. 

“In for another round? How was the mission night?” Julia asked when Peter plopped down into the chair next to her. She would be overseeing the DNA and other chemical samples being filed into the system, while Peter would mainly be concerned with mission data.   
“Very chaotic and very long, but I think we did great. Now we just got to wrap up all loose ends,” he replied while booting all the systems he needed, arranging them on the four holographic screens lining his workspace. Julia had a similar set up in front of her, but there was also a small box on her desk connected to a pipe where she could directly receive samples and analyse them inside the machine. It was just big enough to fit both hands inside, with attached gloves and all instruments needed already displayed inside.   
“Gonna be a long night. Are you on breakfast duty in the morning?” she asked with a smirk, and Peter grinned. They were both parents to young children, and coming home in the morning hours was a good opportunity to spend some quality time with the little ones before falling into bed until the afternoon.  
“Definitely. I'm thinking at stopping by somewhere and get pancakes, or waffles.”  
“Oh, I know a great waffle place nearby, let's go there after we're done here.”  
“Deal. Breakfast saved.”  
“We're parenting heroes, truly.”

They made their way through the data and made good progress surprisingly fast. Peter organized the delivery of food, drinks, medications and other necessities to the orphanages – mansions that were mostly owned by wealthy mutants or heroes. While the places were set up with everything from nannies quarters to an on-site doctor and chef, there were still a lot of things to take care of.   
Thankfully Peter just had to access the ones owned by S.I., which were about twenty houses around the westcoast area. He logged onto the computers one by one and got them diaper and toiletries delivered, some basic groceries in bulk to store, like noodles, rice and milk formula, and a selection of fresh things to be delivered each week.   
“I wonder when the media's gonna pick up on all of this,” Julia mentioned from the side, currently looking into the microscope attached to her machine. She tsk-ed and crossed out something on one of the screens, telling the machine to pack the sample back up and mark it as “contaminated” before sending it into storage.   
“I hope for both soon and not too soon. Soon for all the military and officials who have been benefiting from this, and not too soon because of the children. You know how people are when it's about mutants,” Peter sighed as he logged into the last server. This one said that there were already three kids living their since last night, all remarkably healthy and overall unharmed by the missions.   
“Yeah, I'm always amazed at how people can treat any child badly just because of what kind of blood runs through them or what kind of color their skin has. How weird is that? A kid doesn't know these things and they shouldn't. They're just kids.”  
“Yeah. Let's just hope they're not freaking out. Nobody asked for this to happen,” Peter muttered, already fearing for people standing in front of the orphanages with banners demanding mutants to leave.   
“I just hope they'll see who are the real bad guys here. Not mutants, the people exploiting them. I mean, peoples DNA has been stolen, just wrap your head around that! How must that feel?”  
“Mmh,” Peter just hummed, biting his tongue. Nobody in the lab knew about him being Spiderman, and it should stay this way for the forseeable future. It was just too dangerous to have a lot of people know, and now that he had Bea, he planned on keeping his identity a secret for as long as possible. “I'm just glad when we get back to routine. I'd much rather work at normal office hours.”  
Thankfully Julia didn't object changing the subject.   
“I already wrote a mail to the shift planning guys this afternoon, asking why the hell people with kids had to come in working night shifts, and they assured me that it's only an emergency solution. Whatever out next shift's gonna be, it'll be at daytime.”  
“Thank god. I mean, I love Bea a lot, but she's just so energetic and I'm … tired,” Peter admitted and they both laughed, comfortable with sharing the truths about parenthood. 

They managed to work through quite a bit of data throughout the night, and eventually Peter had to install a different server for the massive amounts of DNA samples that had to be stored. They had stopped trying to find matches for now, mainly because the filing alone took up so much time.   
A lot of the children and women were in medical right now, and the pregnant women wouldn't be tested for another week, maybe longer depending on their consent to it. 

 

When they could finally leave the lab, Peter and Julia went to the place she talked about and each got a big box of waffles and a bottle of maple syrup to take home. Peter sent a picture of the content of his box – golden waffles stacked on each other – and Wade sent back a picture of him and Bea making big eyes, both with a fork in hand, barely able to look over the dinner table. 

And just as he hoped Peter got to work dayshifts, albeit them being ten hours long every other day. In between the longer shifts he would only work between three and five hours and had some more time to spend with Bea.   
Peter made sure to get her lots of quality time just for the two of them, since she was with Wade for most of the week. The two of them went to children's museums and conventions where she could explore and learn, her eyes sparkling and her little mind soaking up each new information like a sponge.

 

That same week Peter and Wade met up with Matt and the owner of their future property next to aunt May’s house. Once all the papers were signed and the money was transferred, Wade began tearing down the old house – all by himself, since it was not only way cheaper than having a company do it, but also “totally fun”, as he claimed. Each day when Peter was at work, he went over to aunt May’s place, where he dropped off Bea.  
Peter had a strict no babies on the construction site rule, after Wade had sent him a picture of Bea with a hard hat, pushing at a half torn-down wall. He knew the little one was absolutely safe with Wade, but it made all the spider senses and his intuition as a parent run crazy to think of her anywhere near falling debris.

Within two weeks the old place was no more, instead stuffed into a container that a company picked up before the weekend.   
“Can you come over to May’s place after work on Thursday? I wanted to talk to an architect about the new house,” Wade said, looking very proud when he put a binder with some ideas for it onto Peter’s desk.   
“Sure, I’ll bring dinner, too. Can’t have you guys do all the work every day.”  
“Nah, you’re being smart, that’s important. – But your smarts could bring some Chimichangas, nothing bad about that,” Wade replied with a wink and Peter laughed. Then he closed the tabs on his computer one by one, relishing in that feeling of accomplishment when he saved all his works again and sent them to the wireless external hard drive next to the keyboard just to be safe.   
He had just about managed to finish some things for the following morning while Bea was already asleep.   
“What’s this?” Peter asked and opened the folder, flicking through notes and schematics of their property that was now empty. In the back, Wade had compiled some printed pages that Peter quickly scanned.

“You want a panic room?” he asked once he understood what the pictures were about.  
“Sure. Complete with storage for enough stuff to last half a year, separate air and water systems including filtration, and a generator. You know, in case of the spontaneous zombie apocalypse.”  
“Oh, yeah, ‘cause that always happens,” Peter teased, but didn’t object either, because he, too, would feel safer. With all the things in their past, he’d want a place to bring Bea and aunt May in case of any kind of emergency. “And it goes underneath the regular basement?”  
“Yeah, with a hidden door behind a shelf. I’ll just stuff it with the couponing haul and since it’ll be on rollers we can just slide it aside and get into the panic room from there.”

Peter nodded, flicking through the pages. There were several house designs and options to be combined.   
“Oh, I like this one.”  
“Right? I thought so, too. We could have a fence around here,” Wade said and drew a line with his finger. The picture showed a patio connecting directly from aunt May’s garage to their house, which Wade wanted to fence off to the street side. Peter thought that maybe putting the two houses too close together wouldn’t have been allowed by the state authorities, so a wooden patio was much less permanent but still connected their houses. It also made for a space where Bea could play safely and always be within reach of an adult.   
“It’s great,” Peter said with a smile, almost envisioning their future house. 

 

The meeting went great and they agreed on all the things they wanted in their house, which the architect – a friendly young woman with spiky red hair – would work into the design. They would meet up again to look at the finished blueprints and then the building company would begin their work. 

 

Because she was so eager to learn more and always asked for it Peter did secretly start teaching Bea how to write. Wade was always apprehensive to teach her so much, he feared she would miss out on childhood fun, but because he worked so much he couldn’t know just how much Bea wanted it for herself. She always took brought her letter cards over and showed how well she knew all of them, and even tried to read the words on the covers of her favourite books.   
Peter guesses that if he didn’t start teaching her more, she might become frustrated or bored. 

So Peter sat her down on the floor and gave her huge crayons that were easy to hold, showing her each flashcard and helping her to write the letter. She loved it, her eyes big and round with wonder because she could now make the letters herself.   
Whenever Peter didn’t want her to just sit and write, he took her to the zoo, to museums and even the planetarium. She wasn’t very interested in all the data on planets and stars yet, but she did like to look at them. The paintings at the museum fascinated her a lot more, she asked lots of questions and Peter laughed when she said a piece by Monet was ugly. 

 

To get her some social interactions, they enrolled Bea in a dance class, which at her age was mostly tumbling around at a gym, but also some simple tap dancing steps.   
Wade and Peter both attended her first real lesson, and Bea stood in the middle of the room with the other kids, so proud to wear her pink and black unitard like a real dancer. Wade had styled her hair in a bun with a pink ribbon around it, and took so many pictures of her every move, smiling all the time.   
“Was that fun? Do you wanna do it again?” Peter asked Bea after class, when she came running to them and asked for some water. She sipped from her bottle and nodded.   
“Yeah, lotsa fun! I do it again!”  
“Then I guess we're gonna go shopping tomorrow, you need real dancing shoes.”  
“Yay, shopping!”  
“That's my girl. I think we can also pick up your new clothes at the store – I found out that we don't have to pay for shipping if we get it delivered to the store instead of home. Save the money and the stress with having to pick clothes in a packed store full of little rugrats,” Wade mentioned to Peter, who nodded, understanding where that sentiment came from. He'd been shopping with Bea once, getting her a new jacket, and regretted not having opted for online shopping. There had been kids screaming and yelling, running around the store, moms pushing past him and in the end they didn't even have the right size of the jacket. Peter had no idea how Wade could do this, but he was incredibly glad that this was his unique Dad-superpower. 

The very next day Wade and Bea took the subway into the city centre while Peter was at work.   
They entered the shoe store together and Wade was pretty glad Bea was holding his hand – she said she was a big girl and didn't want to be in her stroller all the time – because instantly all the moms and kids stared at him. He felt anxious all over again, almost like when he started going out with his face.   
“Look!” Bea said happily and pulled Wade from his thoughts, when she pointed to some slippers with Hello Kitty on them.   
“Yeah, those are super cute, but we gotta buy you tapping shoes, remember? Let’s look for those,” Wade said, looking around and pretending not to notice the stares.   
“What they look like?” she asked, already peering left and right at the shoes on the displays as if she would spot a bright red arrow anytime now.   
“They're black and shiny,” Wade said, watching with a grin when Bea tiptoed to look at all the shoes.   
“Oooh, shiny. - I dance, Papa.”  
“You do, and you’re so good at it. Gonna be even better with real shoes. You’re gonna look like a star,” Wade said, smiling about Bea’s excited giggle. They found the aisle with the kid’s dance shoes, but the next problem was the sizes.   
“So, let’s see ...,” Wade mumbled, while Bea talked about how pretty the shoes were.   
“Shoes, Papa!”  
“Yeah, we’re gonna get some. Okay, come over here, we gotta figure out which size you need,” Wade said and went over to a measuring station with Bea. He took off both her shoes and measured both feet just to be safe, then picked her up to walk over to the shoes again.   
“So then ... hm, wouldn’t it be better to get a size up? You grow like crazy.”  
“Yeah.”  
“Are you always agreeing to me?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Okay, then no dates. Ever.”  
“Okay.”  
Wade laughed and kissed Bea, who giggled but pointed at the shoes again because she still wanted pretty much all of them. 

“Sir, can I help you?”   
Wade turned and was surprised to see a store clerk standing quite close to them. She looked a bit pale around the nose, but was putting on a brave face.   
“Uh, yeah. We’re looking for tap dancing shoes but I’m not quite sure ... about the size? They shouldn’t be too loose if she wants to really dance, but she grows so fast that I usually buy a size up for her sneakers and such.”  
She looked surprised and Wade thought that maybe she hadn’t expected him to be so familiar with kids stuff. Well, one more to be taught that big muscly guys could pick out cute pink shoes.   
“Oh, uh ... yeah, well, you could take half a size up, but I wouldn’t recommend more. The half size up you can make up for with the clips on the side.”  
“Cool, yeah, then we’ll take half a size up and go from there. It’s her first dance class anyways, so we’ll see if she likes it.”  
“I like it!”   
“Yeah, I know. You say that now, let’s wait a few weeks,” Wade said and Bea grinned.   
“Okay, uh, then I’ll just take those to the front and you can take your time looking around if you want,” she said, staring at both of them a bit longer than polite. Wade realized only after a moment that she maybe saw that they did look alike, and that Wade was really her father and not some creep who stole the kid or something.   
“Alright, thanks. C’mon, road runner, let’s put those shoes back on.”  
“I'm not road runner. I'm Bea,” she said and made Wade laugh.

Wade got her shoes back on and picked another pair from clearance that was still too big but would probably fit her this autumn. It was just a pair of cute sneakers in grey and pink, something that would go with most of her outfits.

“I carry, bag,” Bea insisted when they paid for the shoes, but Wade shook his head.   
“Honey, that’s too heavy for you. You can carry the next bag, if you want. Remember that we have to pick up your clothes?”  
“Oh. ... okay,” Bea said and lifted one hand for Wade to hold.   
“Good girl. Now, let’s get going. Say bye bye.”  
“Bye bye, shoe lady!” Bea called and the girl smiled and waved at her.   
They got to the clothing store and Wade asked to have one of the shirts packed into a small bag for Bea to carry, which she did so very proudly, it was adorable. 

 

They visited aunt May to take care of her garden – and in Bea’s case to snack on some fresh fruit and veggies right from the plant – and then made it home in time with Peter.   
“We buy shoes, Daddy! So cute!” Bea greeted, pointed to the bag and also showed her own little bag with that one shirt in it. 

Peter smirked, no doubt Bea had picked that phrase up from Wade.   
“I know, Papa sent me a picture. They're super cute - did you guys eat already?” Peter asked, rummaging through the kitchen to find himself a cup of ramen noodles and start the water boiler.   
“Yeah, on the way home from shopping,” Wade replied, wiggling Bea out of her cardigan and shoes before she could go to her play area. She ran right over and poured a box of Lego blocks onto the floor.   
“But Bea did have some vegetables, right?” Peter asked with a side glance at Wade, who nodded immediately.   
“Of course. Take a seat, I'll take care of your ramen.”

Peter agreed thankfully, sitting down at the coffee table, glad to relax into the cushions of the sofa. He watched Bea put together some blocks, noticing her horse figures nearby. Maybe she was building them a stable.   
“Bea, how was shopping with Papa?”  
“Fun!” she said and then told him in length all the things they bought. About less than half of it was actually understandable, but Peter listened anyways.  
“And what did you eat after shopping?” he enquired, resting his chin on his hand as he watched her, feeling Wade tense up.   
Bea thought about it for a moment, then grinned, looking exactly like Wade.  
“Fren’Fry.”

Smirking, Peter turned around to Wade, who’d just poured water into Peter’s cup ramen, looking innocent as ever.   
“They’re made out of potatoes, and those are a vegetable. The ketchup, too.”  
“That’s true,” Peter had to admit. He went over to Bea, who watched them carefully, and stage-whispered loud enough for Wade to hear.   
“Next time, I’ll go eat french fries with you.”  
“Yay!”  
“Aw, spoilsport! Does that mean I have to go to a museum?” Wade asked with a laugh, carrying over the cup ramen and placing it onto the coffee table, a pair of chopsticks holding the lid down.   
“Maybe we’ll take you with us. Make a family fast food date. How’s that sound, Bea?”  
“Yay!”  
“You know she’ll agree to anything when you ask like that? Today she agreed to never date. Ever,” Wade explained, sitting on the floor with Bea and joining in building the stable for her horses.  
By the time she had to go to bed, there was a finished stable and a fence made out of the blocks and all her horses lined up inside their new home. 

Bea was sleeping in her big girl bed now – since she’d climbed out of her crib a few times now, they’d just taken one of the railings out completely, leaving just three sides so make it cozy and lean her stuffed animals against. The first night of sleeping in there, she’d personally sent a picture of her new bed to aunt May, proudly showing off this next big step in her life.   
“This one, Daddy,” Bea said once Wade had changed her into a nightgown, picking a book from her shelf. It was a classic fairy tale from a brand new set Peter and Wade had ordered for Bea.   
She loved books and could even make out some of the words on the title of each book already, even though the big texts inside the book were too much for her still.  
“We read this one, Daddy,” she said and gave Peter the book, then climbed up onto the rocking chair, where Wade pulled her into his arms. Peter opened the book, smiling because lately, Sleeping Beauty had been her favourite.   
“Once upon a time,” Peter began and read through the shortened story, showing Bea the pictures she must know by heart by now, but still wanted to see almost every night. When they got close to the end of the story, Bea leaned heavier into Wade’s arms, and eventually she curled up on his lap, her eyelids drooping when Peter finished with the usual “and they lived happily ever after.”  
“Thank you, Daddy,” Bea mumbled sleepily when Peter closed the book.   
“You’re very welcome,” Peter replied and leaned in to kiss their little girl. “You ready for bed now?”  
“Yeah. I go night night,” she said and yawned right away. 

Wade carried her to bed and tucked her in, her favourite bear in her arms, while Peter turned on the night light so it wouldn’t be all dark in the room. They were lucky that Bea wasn’t one of those kids who climbed out of bed five times a night, but she did always ask to have her door open just a bit at night.   
“I love you, sweet dreams,” Wade whispered to Bea and kissed her cheeks, making her grin.   
“I love you, good night,” Peter said, kissing Bea as well.   
“Love you, too. Night night,” Bea whispered and watched them leaver her room, rolling onto her side just before Peter pulled the door almost closed. They had installed another night light in the hallway, which was shimmering through the door and helped Bea feel safe. 

 

“You gotta leave early tomorrow?”  
Peter nodded when they entered their bedroom, where he headed immediately for his dresser.   
“Yeah, tomorrow’s a big day. Preston’s coming in and we’re working on some new programming.”  
“Cool, cool,” Wade muttered, tugging off his clothes and slipping into bed in only his boxer shorts. 

“Any news ...?” he asked quietly after a moment of silence, reaching over to keep the stack of books on Peter’s night stand from falling over. The younger man looked over his shoulder briefly, turning again to pull out a shirt he’s wear the next day. He’d made a habit out of preparing for the next morning, just so he could spend some time with Bea before work.   
“Nothing, yet,” he eventually answered, thinking of all the children they’d found. By now, all the orphanages were filled and there were even new rooms being converted into dormitories and nurseries. “The data is still coming in from all over the world, but we’re working on a new programm to sift through everything in real time whenever we get incoming DNA samples. This should shorten the overall research time and hopefully get some results ... well, I kinda hope we don’t get any results, but that’s naiv, I know.”  
“I think it’s being hopeful. Did they find yours?”  
“My DNA? Yeah, there were three samples going around, and all have been secured in our lab.”  
“Do ... do you think there’s ...?”  
Wade didn’t finish the question, neither had Peter, the hundred or so times he’d wondered just the same thing in his mind.  
“I don’t know. I don’t hope so,” Peter replied quietly, his fingertips going cold and a lump appearing in his throat. He didn’t even dare think about what might still be waiting for him once their new programme was working. Then again, it might just be nothing, he told himself whenever his thoughts turned too dark.   
“There might be nothing, let’s not worry for now,” Wade echoed his thoughts, pulling aside the blankets and patting the mattress invitingly. Peter smiled, thankful to have his husband by his side with all this going on.   
“Yeah, let’s not worry now.”

 

The very next morning, when Julia – who’d finally worked through all of the samples and was now helping with the manual comparison of DNA – and Peter were hunched over their keyboards, one of the computers let out a shrill beep.   
“Oh god, what’s that now?” Julia asked, leaning back to look at Preston’s spot, but their hacker was nowhere to be seen. He’d left about half an hour ago to get a bigger server ready and fix one of the hard drives he’d fried when testing the first version of the programme. The next version had made its test run all by itself while Preston was away, and now it made one lonely monitor blink green.   
“Uh, I think it worked?” Peter said and rolled his chair over to the monitor to check what was written in the little window that had opened.   
“Yeah, it worked,” he concluded with a sigh, upon seeing the result of that test search. 

It was a match.


	55. Chapter 55

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaah so late, I'm sorry guys <3 Work is crazy right now and I think we might have to change the upload day soon. But I'll let you know about that when I decide, so don't you worry!

“Oh no,” Julia whispered when she realized what that meant. She glanced over but probably couldn’t gather much information from just a few numbers popping up on the screen.   
“Do we know who it is? – Wait, that’s confidential, right?”  
“Yeah, but I know who it is. I ... you know what, I’ll tell him. Getting to know through an e-mail is kind of ...”  
“Cruel?”  
“A bit,” Peter agreed, getting up and stretching his achy back. While he was glad that it wasn’t a match for himself, he did feel a bit bad about what he had to do. He got up and left the lab, boarded an elevator and asked the A.I Jarvis for a location. 

The bot sent him down to the gym, where Peter swiped his access card through a keybad on the door. He half expected to hear fast punches being delivere to the punching bags, but there was no sound other than a radio playing the news.   
There was, however, one of the punching bags on the floor, it’s contents spilling out through a fist-sized hole. Another one was already put up on a hook. 

“Captain?” he asked into the massive hall, startling momentarily when the man in question appeared from around the corner, where a bar for refreshments and juices was located. He was holding a glass full of lime green smoothie.   
”Mr. Parker, how can I help you?” he said with a warm smile, his forehead dotted with little beads of sweat, his shirt clinging to him just a bit more than usual. Peter wondered what kind of workout it would take to get Captain America to sweat. Probably one that broke punching bags.  
“I ... I actually have news for you, uh ...” Peter mumbled and had to clear his throat. He took a deep breath and looked up, meeting the Captain’s inquisitive gaze. “We’ve got a match. Your DNA has been ... located.”  
With that, Peter held out a tablet computer with the data in a secured file, which opened when the Captain swiped his thumb over it. He looked pale and very serious while he read the few lines of computer generated text, then scrolled down to see a picture.   
Peter hadn’t looked at the picture, because he was too scared of even getting in contact with something like this, too scared of the possibility of this happening to him.   
“Okay,” Captain Rogers just said, a muscle in his jaw jumping. He nodded as if to himself, clenching his teeth, nodding again. “Okay, thank you, Mr. Parker. I ... I will ...”  
He left the sentence unfinished, handing Peter the computer back, who nodded slowly. He wanted to say so much more, wanted to offer some kind of help, but instead he turned and left the gym, giving the other man some space to think. 

While most of the stolen DNA had been from mutants, the Captain was probably targeted for the serum running through his veins. It was nearly impossible to isolate it from his cells, but as long as that wasn’t the plan, Hydra could use it to their heart’s content. 

Sure steps echoed through the hallway and Peter looked up briefly.   
“Hi,” Peter mumbled when he hurried past the Winter Soldier, who only regarded him with a nod, but smiled friendly.   
“Hey, you ready ...? – What is it?” was the last thing Peter heard before the doors to the training floor closed behind him. The shift in the man’s voice made it clear that he knew, could see, that something was wrong with the Captain. That something had happened, shaken him.   
Peter sighed, feeling guilty for selfishly hoping this would never happen to him. 

They were testing the programme on their own data packages first, meaning that every mutant registered with the Avengers would now be checked. Which meant Peter’s data was probably already running through the machines, comparing itself to the other sets collected from the babies and mothers they rescued. 

 

Peter deliberately didn’t look at the screens running the DNA comparisons anymore for the rest of the day. He finished up his work and left right on time, eager to get home – and escape whatever news might wait for him. 

Bea and Wade greeted him with some muffins they’d made in the afternoon, and the dinner already on the stove.   
“You twy after dinner, Daddy,” Bea said, putting one of the muffins in it’s pink paper collar on the dinner table next to Peter’s plate. “We twy already! So yummy!”  
“Oh, thank you so much,” Peter said, pushing out Bea’s chair after she ran off to the kitchen island again to return with spoons.   
“What’s for dinner?” Peter asked her and lifted her into the chair. By now they didn’t strap her in anymore, and her own plate stood on the table, but she was still too little to sit on a real chair.   
“Noodles! We make small noodles.”  
“Noodle soup, actually. But homemade, aunt May’s recipe,” Wade added, stirring the pot once again. “And Bea helped so good, she put everything into the pot.”  
“Yeah!” Bea agreed, smiling wide and obviously proud of herself for being so helpful. Peter loved seeing her like this. He didn’t tell Wade about the Captain’s match, nor about the others he saw being made over the rest of the week. The programme ran well and everybody was informed of their match via a detailed and encrypted e-mail, with the exact location and a picture of their child or children. 

 

The following weekend Peter got to stay at home completely, and he gladly spent his downtime with either Bea or some of his own projects.   
“Shouldn’t you, like, get away from that computer of yours? Are you working again?” Wade asked while very delicately placing a barbie doll onto a chair. Aunt May had gotten a complete tea time setup for Bea at a flea market, and she loved it. Peter suspected Wade loved all those girly toys, too.   
“I’m not working, it’s just a thing I’ve been playing with. It’s nice to think about something other than DNA stuff. Like jogging, but for the brain.”  
“Your smart people shenanigans,” Wade teased, making Peter laugh. For the first time in weeks he felt actually rested, because he’d gotten a full night’s sleep the previous night. He’d had a nice long shower, had gone grocery shopping with Bea and Wade, had cooked lunch with them. On top of it all they’d completed the search for DNA matches within the New York database, and there’d been no matches for Peter or Wade.   
It was a really perfect day, even better now that he felt inspired enough to continue on his own little works, who were mostly mind games and testing possibilities, but so much fun. 

“Tea, please,” Bea said in a higher pitched voice, sitting her doll down at the table. There was even a little table cloth on it. Wade picked up the plastic tea pot with two fingers of one hand, with the other he held the hand of his doll to it, pretending to have her pour it.   
“Of course, my dear. You have to try this cake, too, it’s yummy.”  
“Ooh, I like yummy cake, thank you.”

Peter smiled, listening to the two of them with half an ear while he typed away. His latest tests had turned out great and he hoped to continue this kind of work when his mission with the Avengers was over, maybe he could-   
The latest simulations finishing interrupted his thoughts. Peter stared at the monitor for a moment, then read everything again, making sure that there weren’t any misunderstandings. When it was clear that he was indeed successful, Peter grinned.

“I got it!” Peter suddenly yelled from the office area, startling Wade and making Bea look over curiously. He sat there, a huge smile on his face and both arms in the air. “Bea, I got it! Yay!”   
“Yay! You got it!” Bea shouted, lifting her arms as well but not letting go of her barbie, instead waving it around.   
“Whatcha got?” Wade wanted to know, scooting over to look around into the office.   
Peter, still grinning, opened one of the boxes that sat on Wade's side of the desk – it had just sort of happened that Peter’s experiments had taken up so much space in their shared office that Wade was now working with his laptop at the coffee table instead.   
Peter now pulled something made out of cloth from the box.   
“This here, was a prototype I've been working on over the past few weeks. You know, I actually tried to design a kind of fabric alloy, something to spray or otherwise add to our costumes to make them more resistant – yes, I had in mind selling everything to Stark in the end for a nice big sum.”  
“Always the money maker. So what's that, then? Doesn't look like ya new Spidey suit, or are ya goin' full Tarzan?”  
Peter laughed, taking a turn in his chair, making Bea laugh in the process. He got up and sat on the edge of the office space to show Wade what he had in hand. It still looked like a piece of cloth, but with something padded on the inside.   
“Okay, look. I actually found a way to treat regular cotton fabric with non-toxic, biodegradable chemicals. It's protein based with an emulsifying agent mixed in, meaning it's only needed to be treated _once_ , making production way cheaper than for the other products on the market!”  
“That's great and all, but I still don't know what the heck it is,” Wade mentioned with a grin and turned the thing over in his hands.   
“It's nothing, for now, just a cloth prototype. But we're gonna make diapers out of it.”  
“Diapers?!”  
“Yeah!”  
Peter laughed again, bouncing up and down.   
“Wade, I thought I could make something to absorb fluids – because long hours of fighting in a tight suit makes you sweaty, obviously … and from the outside it could maybe absorb blood or whatever DNA samples could be useful from our enemies, maybe samples from gases or toxins they use. But it shouldn't mix or soak through, right, so I wanted to add another small layer in between, but then I kinda got distracted because I still had to order diapers for next month. _Diapers_ , Wade!”  
“Alright and then you made them outta that stuff!”  
“Yeah, kind of. Well, of course I had to test it out a lot, to meet all the necessary standards, you know. But once that was done, and turned out to be great, I developed the prototype, with two layers of the treated cotton, and a layer of super absorbant padding in between – I got an old friend from uni who just started in a company developing this stuff and they agreed to supply me as soon as production starts!”  
“Whoa, whoa, hold on, ain't that a bit fast? Am I missing something?”  
Peter looked apologetic for a moment, reaching out almost on instant as Bea put a doll in his free hand, probably deciding that their talking wasn’t interesting enough.  
“It's actually been going on for quite a while now and I had a lab test it all through for me, do all the things I really couldn't safely do here. And it works. Everything works just great. The finished product will keep all it's properties for up to 50 rounds in the washing machine and dryer. After that, they can just be thrown into the biodegradable trash or into the garden, even. I thought about adding a tag on the inside that changes color when the material loses it’s absorbing qualities.”  
Wade nodded slowly, turning the fabric over and over in his hands.   
“Got it all worked out, huh? Like … in what kinda stage is that stuff?”  
“Final. It's either me selling it to a company, or starting production myself.”  
Wade nodded, holding up a finger to indicate that he had to think for a moment. His Spidey might be a super smarty, but Wade himself had a hard time coming up with stuff.   
“But Petey … if you sell everything, it's gonna be one-time only money. But if you could maybe sell the finished product for yourself, you could make lotsa cash. Fast. Like, I swear, those organic-moms are gonna go crazy over that stuff,” he said, speaking from experience because he met those certain moms at the supermarket or the playground. The ones who give their kids celery sticks and carrots to snack on, and ask not to have the food scanned at the supermarket because of the oh so bad lasers touching the produce.   
Wade wouldn’t believe these people exist hadn’t he seen them.   
“Right? Cloth diapers are all the rage, but the washing and leaking is a problem. Our's doesn't leak with regular, y'know, measures of fluid. It's as absorbant as a plastic diaper, but washable, organic, and they can recycle it,” Peter now explained, looking all proud of himself, rightfully so.   
“All the stuff them moms love.”  
“Yeah.”  
“So what's the problem? There's a problem, right?”

Peter smirked, tilting his head to the side just a bit.   
“Yeah. It's funding and production. I could have a local company make them for me, outsource it all, but I'd still have to do the sales management and everything,” he sighed, shrugging as if he was ready to drop the topic alltogether, but Wade wasn’t letting him.   
“And what's keeping you from that?” he pressed, leaning in. Bea wasn’t even mildly interested in their talk anymore and had gone over to play with her plastic horses.  
“Uh, the fact that I don't have my own company? And no people to do it. I mean, I love the coincidence and that brands are already interested to distribute for me, but … I still would like to do R&D work. It’s not what I would want to do for a living.”

Wade smirked, carefully putting the diaper prototype back into Peter's hands.   
“Then maybe it's time for a birthday present?”  
Peter smiled in surprise, but furrowed his brows with it.   
“But my birthday is not until next week,” Peter argued, looking up and watching Wade’s every move, his brows knitted together. He looked absolutely adorable.   
“It's an early present. Well, I've had it for quite a while and it seems like you need it now rather than next week.”  
With that, Wade got up from the floor, Bea following him as he went to the one locked drawer at his desk. He opened it with a fingerprint and the drawer slid out smoothly and quietly. Inside was a thick envelope with a ribbon on it, which he handed to Peter.   
“Happy early Birthday. Open it,” he said with a smirk and sat back down, eagerly awaiting Peter's reaction as he opened the letter and shook out a bunch of documents.   
“Happy Birthday Daddy!” Bea called, jumping up and down. She didn’t know about that surprise, but she was always down to celebrate. 

Peter stared at the documents for a long moment, long enough to worry Wade that this had maybe been a step too far. Well, maybe it hadn’t been his smartest move to name it right away, but ...  
“Parker Industries …,” he read aloud after a moment and his eyes widened when he looked up. “You bought me a company?!”  
“Well, not, like, building-wise. But I bought you the name, registered it and everything. And a website for it, and a voucher for all the necessary papers, designs, business cards 'n stuff,” Wade explained, waving his hand in the general direction of the papers. Peter stared at them again and Wade was incredibly relieved when his husband broke out into a huge smile.   
“Wade … this is … I … oh, thank you!” he shouted and threw his arms around Wade, squeezing a bit too tight but Wade didn’t mind one bit.   
“I knew you'd like it!” he replied and kissed Peter quickly, before Bea came storming onto them, clinging to Wade’s back and wanting to be part of the family hug.  
“I love it!” Peter laughed as he pulled Bea in between them, catching her safely in his hands before hugging her tight. 

Once Bea was happy and took off towards her toys again, Peter and Wade got to take another look at the company documents.   
“So, you can get started with production 'n stuff, you got a company for it now. Matt's got the official documents waiting in his office, all you need to do is get ya cute butt over there and sign. Y’know, to be the real boss man.”  
“Oh? I thought I’m the boss already,” Peter said with a smirk, carefully stacking the papers and sliding them back into the envelope.   
“Pff, you wish,” Wade giggled and they laughed together, hugging again. 

When everything was neatly packed up again, Peter gave the envelope a last loving pat bevor putting them into a drawer in his desk.   
“Wow, I can't believe it,” he sighed, sounding like his dreams had some true. Well, they kinda had, Wade thought. Peter had told him a few times of his dreams of having his own company, and actually doing good with it, instead of just being out for the money.   
And with all the money they now made from the real estate thing, Peter could fully focus on doing just that – being a hero.   
“Believe it. I thought ... well, you don’t have to sell your stuff away. Keep it. It’s yours and you should profit from that, not someone who spent some cash on it.”  
“Well, we’d make a lot of cash out of it ... but it’s nice to keep it,” Peter admitted with a small, happy smile. Of course he was always glad when someone bought his ideas, but with a nice top seller under his belt whatever he decided to do with his company in the future would be so much easier.   
“We’re gonna be, like, real adults soon with out own companies ‘n stuff,” Wade giggled, catching Bea who’d flung himself onto him, asking for cake. Thankfully she seemed okay with just a cookie, even if she didn’t really understand why there wasn’t any cake now that they said happy birthday. 

 

The rest of the weekend was spent with lots of quality time for the family, like an afternoon at aunt May’s place where they worked in the garden and enjoyed a sun. After that they went for a quick walk to a nearby playground, where Peter and Bea got to climb around a bit.   
“Higher, Daddy!” she squeeled into Peter’s ear as he climbed all the way to the top of the play structure with her. He only ever did this when there weren’t any other parents with their scrutinizing looks around – many probably thought Peter was too young to be a father – or other kids who could try to imitate them.  
“No, Daddy can’t do that! That’s way too dangerous!” Wade called from the ground where he watched them with a worried expression.   
“No, Papa, it’s fun!” Bea argued and Peter giggled. He did climb all the way up and they looked at the streets around for a moment before climbing back down.   
“I can do it!” Bea said into Peter’s ear, her blond hair falling over his shoulder.   
“Not yet, baby. When you’re a bit older than I can show you how to climb by yourself,” Peter promised, countering her inevitable pout by telling her to hold on tight because they were about to jump.   
“Yay!” Bea yelled and hugged Peter’s neck, giggling when he let both of them dangle from the edge of the play structure’s roof by just one hand.   
“Ready?”  
“Yeah!”  
So Peter let them drop, landing without much of a sound other than Bea’s laugh.   
“One of those days my poor heart just won’t be able to take this anymore,” Wade sighed, pulling Bea into his arms.   
“You know she’d never fall,” Peter mentioned gently, pulling the string of spider web from Bea’s back, where it had been connected to Peter’s wrist.   
“ _Technically_ I do know that. And I would totally not be worried if you climbed around with me on your back. But something about seeing Bea, like, a thousand feet in the air, just makes me die a little inside.”  
“You know she's going to do something with her powers in the future, though.”  
“Yeah, but now noooow,” Wade whined, hugging Bea tight to his chest. “For now, she can stay super cute 'n little 'n all. Right?”  
“Right,” Bea said, leaning against Wade's shoulder and seeming okay with that spot for the rest of the trip home. 

 

When the planning phase for their new house began a week later, just after Peter's birthday – they just celebrated with a family dinner at a nice restaurant, nothing too big – Peter had Bea prepare a little surprise for Wade. Peter helped her make a card out of her drawing of their future house – mostly a big square box with some squiggly lines all over the place, but it was the thought that counted – and showed her which letters to put where to spell “our new home”, when she said that every card needed some letters on it.   
Bea insisted on writing every letter by herself, so Peter traced the letter with the backside of a pencil and she followed it, looking so very proud of her first written words.   
Because he'd always had to be up early on weekdays, they'd agreed that Peter would be the one waking Bea and getting her ready, so that Wade could sleep half an hour longer. Which was just the perfect opportunity for Bea to wake Wade up every morning by jumping on their bed.   
“Morning, morning!” she called, plopping down into the pillow next to Wade and laughing when he caught her and pulled her to his chest.   
“'S not morning. Totally night. See?” he said and threw his blanket over Bea's head, making her kick her legs.   
“No, it's morning, Papa! Get up! We got s'prise!”  
“For me?”  
“Yeah! Look!”

That got Wade to push the blankets aside and watch as Bea scrambled up to her knees, reaching out to Peter, who gave her the card to show Wade.  
“Aww, look at that, who wrote that?” he said with a smile, looking at the drawing gently.   
“Me!” Bea chirped happily and bounced on the bed. “Look, it’s bluuue ... and piiink ... and gweeen ... and puw ...”  
“Purple.”  
“Yeah,” Bea said confidently and Wade grinned.   
“It's beautiful. I love it a lot. You and Daddy did a great job, let's put that up on the fridge.”  
“Wait, wait, gotta read the card, Papa,” Bea insisted, pointing to the letters on the top of the paper.   
“And Bea, what does Papa’s card say?” Peter asked and she studied it for a few seconds.  
Then she spelled out all the letters one by one.”  
“It says home, Papa!”  
“Wait a minute, you really did write that?!”  
Bea nodded, handing Wade the card again proudly.  
“What the … really?” Wade asked again, looking up to Peter.   
“She did. I just showed her which letter goes where. It was her idea to put lots of letters on it because that's how you make a card.”  
“Wow. That's … like, super early?”  
“Well, she's a smart girl.”  
“I am smart!” Bea said and jumped off the bed, stating that she'd go to the kitchen now because it was breakfast time. Wade hurried to get up and follow her,   
“Seriously, though, that's not … quite normal, right?”  
“Don't worry, she's not going to make her college degree by ten or something … well, I think not. She's just interested in learning.”  
“Where the fuck did she even pick up that much intelligence?! God know it couldn't be from me,” Wade laughed and shook his head in amused disbelief at the card. 

 

Another two weeks went by quickly, and one evening Wade surprised Peter with the schematics for their new house.   
“That was quick,” he commented when they sat down in the living room, after they'd put Bea down to sleep.   
“That's 'cause we're rich, I think. People work a whole lot faster when they see the cash,” Wade joked, holding out a cardboard tube.   
Peter smiled at Wade, taking tube from him and opening it. Inside was a collection of drawings on thin paper, some blue, some white. He brushed them out on the table and leaned over to look at the pictures.   
Up front were several views of their new – quite massive – new house. They eventually decided to keep aunt May’s garage, and build their own right next to it, behind that would be a big office with floor to ceiling windows for both Wade and Peter, with access to the garden in the back. On top of both garages they planned to build a family room, close to a home cinema where they could all watch movies and shows and spend time together on the comfy sofas.  
From the outside, Wade and Peter’s house was almost a copy of aunt May’s, only a bit longer since they didn’t need the space in-between. On the inside, most of the basics were just mirrored, but most of their downstairs was one big open space.   
Next to the family room upstairs would be the master bedroom, with a small en suite bathroom and shower. Then there were two guest rooms and the master bathroom, and at the other end of the hall was Bea’s room, looking out into the garden. 

Peter could almost see the rooms taking shape, and it filled him with so much happiness.   
“This looks great. - I still can't believe we're doing this.”  
“I know, right? Like adults. We just have to draw in where we want the outlets to be, for electricity and bathroom and kitchen stuff.”  
“Great, yeah. Let's see...,” Peter mumbled, taking a blue pen from Wade and beginning to make little circles here and there where he wanted power outlets to be. “By the way, what about your basement? Didn't you want one?”   
“Yeah, but that's planned by a different company, we can't do much customization to it.”  
“I can’t believe you get something without customizing it,” Peter teased, rolling up the drawings again to put them back into the tube.   
“Oh ha-ha. Joke some more and I won’t let you live in my super cool mansion.”  
“Our mansion, if anything,” Peter replied lightly and leaned over to peck a kiss to Wade’s cheek. 

 

The very next morning Wade met up with the building company while Peter took care of the household. It was pretty rare that Peter was even home in the mornings, but that was only because he’d have to take over a nightshift the next day, filling in for a colleague.   
“Honey, I’m home!” Wade called and made Peter grin. He listened to his lover’s steps in the living room and looked up briefly when Wade poked his head into the bedroom where Peter sat on the floor, a massive pile of laundry in front of him. There were at least four machines worth of clean clothes that he had to sort, fold and put away.   
“Where’s my princess?” Wade asked, taking off the hoodie he wore instead of a jacket.   
”She’s with the daycare today: There’s a magic show, I didn’t want her to miss it. – Sorry for not telling you,” Peter added quickly with an apologetic smirk, but Wade just shrugged.   
“Ah, it’s fine. Hope she has some fun. ... Uh, wait ... so ... this means we’re all alone?” he asked, stopping to lean against the door frame. Peter nodded, wondering if they could manage to mop the bathroom and kitchen before one of them had to start cooking.   
“Yeah. I’ll go and pick Bea up at about half past eleven, so that we can have lunch here.”  
“So ... it’s just you and me here?”

Peter looked up from the laundry, finally picking up on Wade’s tone. He gulped, suddenly and urgently reminded by his body just how long it has been that they had some time for just the two of them.   
“Yeah ...,” he breathed, then dropped everyting and jumped up to meet Wade in the middle of the room. 

 

They didn’t quite make it to the bed, just minutes later Peter was moaning loudly, his hands scrambling for some hold on the bedsheets. He was kneeling on the floor, just his upper body supported by the bed, while Wade was pounding into him fast and deep.   
“Petey ...,” the older man warned, panting heavily. “Not gonna last.”  
Peter could just utter desperate sounds while nodding his head frantically, pushing back as hard as he could. It was so good. So much, but so good. 

Of course they had been intimate before, at night when Bea was sleeping. But there was no way they could let themselves go like that, moan and scream and be just that little bit rough with each other how they both liked it, without risking to wake her up. 

The lone coherent thought wandered through Peter’s head, that this was the best coincidence in months. His time off work and the show at daycare. He hoped there would be more such occasions.   
Yeah, lots more. 

Screaming out his release, Peter came and let his head drop forward into the mattress, when Wade stilled and behind him, filling him up.   
They collapsed on the bed together, but both of them were far from sated.   
“Again?” Wade said, more than a statement than a real question because he was already moving again, making Peter’s over sensitive body shiver. 

“Wade ...?” Peter mumbled, moaning breathily when he was pushed forward.   
“Hm?”  
”We can’t just stay in bed and have sex all day,” he moaned, the protest sounding weak even to his own ears.   
“Who says we can’t? – Also, technically we aren’t even in bed.”  
“I say ... we can’t ... too much to do...”

“We have a lot to catch up on,” Wade argued, lazily re-arranging them so that he was kneeling on the bed and Peter was in his lap, legs spread wide to each side.   
“How come you won’t let me top, huh?” Peter asked, grinning cheekily, his hands reaching out to touch Wade’s shoulders, his bicep, curling around the older man’s wrists possessively.  
“If you can get it up after that round, I’ll letya have all the booty ya want.”  
Peter giggled, feeling himself blush as he let his head drop down onto the sheets.   
“I don’t think that’ll happen...” he mumbled towards the ceiling, a moan escaping his lips when Wade stroked him a few times.   
“Aw, you charmer, you,” Wade laughed, his hands grabbing Peter’s hips hard. 

 

Needless to say it had to be Wade who picked Bea up later, a big grin never leaving his face. He was not just a good father because he picked up his best girl from the daycare, no, he was also a good husband who found the time to pound his lover senseless.   
Best. Day. Ever.  
“Papa!”  
”Bea!” Wade replied in the same high-pitched voice, catching his girl when she jumped off the last few steps into his arms.   
“Where's Daddy?” she asked and Wade tapped his cheek so that Bea would kiss it. She did and he felt happiness surge through him.   
“At home, waiting for us.”  
Bea then told him about every detail of her day – there’d been a clown at the daycare and a magician with a pretty girl helping him. They saw bunnies and some kind of doll that Wade later realized must’ve been a ventriloquist’s puppet. 

 

Back at home Wade was surprised to see Peter up, albeit walking a bit funny.   
“Welcome home, my love. How was your day?” he asked and Bea repeated everything she told Wade, and some more details she probably forgot the first time. While she talked Wade removed her shoes and jacket, smirking because she wasn’t even distracted. 

“What should we make for dinner?” Peter asked, guessing the answer he’d get already.   
“Noodles!” Bea said happily, bouncing up and down and pointing to the cabinet where she knew they’d kept the pasta – she wasn’t allowed to open any kitchen or bathroom cabinets on her own, just for safety reasons.   
“Then we’ll make noodles. Which kind should we make?”   
“Aghetti!” Bea shouted and Peter tried not to laugh, because he thought it wouldn’t be very nice if he laughed at the way she said things.   
“Spa-ghetti,” he supplied instead and had Bea repeat it a few times. When the phone rang, they went over together and Bea politely stopped when Peter took the call, but kept whispering it to herself while watching her dad. The S sounds were still hard for her and Peter saw her tongue stick out a bit with every try. 

Wade waved Bea over and let her help with picking the noodles from the cabinet, and then pour tomato sauce into a little pot – ready made, since Wade doubted Peter could stand long enough to cook.   
“We’re not scheduled for another appointment until next week. What is it?” Peter asked curiously, flippng through their calendar, filled with scribbled in notes in various colors. Bea and Wade watched him when he skribbled another note onto the paper.  
”With all of us?” Peter repeated, his brows knitted together as he listened to the speaker on the other end of the line. 

“No, I ... we got someone here, don’t worry about it. When should we be there?”   
Peter nodded and wrote down a time. 

“What is it?”  
“That was ... the medical team, they want us in tomorrow,” Peter answered, looking down at the floor and then up to meet Wade’s gaze.   
”Is everything alright?” he asked, seeing Peter’s slightly pale face.   
“I’m not sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, another cliffhanger, I'm the worst. I am (kind of, a little bit) sorry ;)  
> But we do need the fluff, oh how we do need it. *is super ominous*


	56. Chapter 56

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoat I'm on time? There are still wonders in the world XD Gotta go fast though, so you guys have a great week and enjoy reading <3

The next day, when Peter was actually supposed to get ready for his night shift at the lab, he went to an S.I. medical ward in a nearby hospital. Peter knew that some of the women from the bases were treated there and they could only enter after both of them had been patted down and shown their Avengers badges. 

“I bet aunt May made some cookies for Bea,“ Wade chuckled as they waited for approval to go ahead. Wade checked his phone, hoping there'd be a cute photo of their daughter sent to him. But no such luck.  
“I happen to know she's got all the ingredients. So she's gonna bake them with Bea. Be prepared for the cutest pink frosted cookies in the history of mankind,“ Peter replied, and both men laughed at the thought. 

Finally the security guard let them through and the double doors to the ward swung open to a small reception, where a young man in a suit guided them towards a meeting room. Next to every single door of the ward there was a security guard in black pants and shirts with the usual S.I. logo, with pepper spray, a gun and a walkie talkie on their belts.   
“I wonder what's up,“ Peter said nervously once they were alone. „I hope it's got nothing to do with Bea.”  
“Nah, I don't think so. She's a little girl, they got tantrums like crazy, nothing out of the ordinary. She’s not harming anybody and so far she’s been an angel at daycare.“  
“Yeah … man, I'm so worried.“  
Peter jumped when Wade put his hand firmly on the younger man’s knee to keep it from bouncing up and down nervously.  
“Why, sweetie? Bad spidey-senses?“  
“Yup,“ the younger man replied darkly, hoping that it was just paranoid of him and in the end nothing was going on. Maybe it was just about some arrangements they had with SHIELD; maybe a school for Bea or something mundane like that.   
Then again, for things like that they usually met up with Dr. Dearing. In the back of his head, there was a little voice reminding Peter of the recent operations the Avengers had been on. But that couldn’t possibly be. The Avengers’ data had been put into the search engine weeks ago, and nothing had turned up for him or Wade. 

It was nothing, Peter told himself over and over again on their way to the meeting room.   
Nothing.   
Nothing.

He was wrong.

The doctor got started as soon as he’d greeted them and sat down at the conference table.   
“Mr. Parker, we need to inform you that your DNA has been used to create a baby. We could take the surrogate mother into our custody, where she will remain until she’s recovered fully after the birth.”

It was one of those sentences Peter knew were written by a P.R. department and then repeated by the unlucky doctor who had to break the news.   
Even Peter had used similar words a few weeks back to tell Cap of his child. Suddenly, not a single one of those words seemed to make sense.   
“I ... I don’t ... what?” Peter mumbled, his heart sinking all the way through into his shoes as the doctor repeated his words slower.   
“I understand that this must come as a shock to you, Mr. Parker. The woman is in our custody until the baby is born. She’s very much insisting on a C-section as soon as possible. And she requested to talk to you in person.”  
There was silence for long minutes, then Wade leaned forward, looking pale underneath his scars, one hand still clutching Peter’s knee.   
“Wait up, wait up, didn’t you, like, search for Avengers members forever ago? Did you just not tell us or what?”  
Peter was suddenly so grateful that Wade just made it their matter instead of just leaving it his.   
The doctor looked a bit uncomfortable at Wade’s accusations.   
“I’m sorry about the delay, but when she arrived from the base, the woman was conscious and declining any medical procedures or tests. She allowed us an x-ray, but no blood work, so while we were of course aware of the pregnancy, we couldn’t determine ... who the father was.”  
Peter’s head snapped up at the word “father” and he fought the instinct to jump up and run.   
“It’s only because she’s developed a feaver and showed signs of an allergic reaction to one of our medications that we were able to obtain a blood sample. We immediately gave it over to the research department.”

“So ...” Peter said and his voice sounded distant even to his own ears, as if he was talking into the void. “She wants to see me?”  
“Yes, she requested as soon as we told her there’d been a match,” the doctor said and gestured towards the door. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but if it’s possible I’d advise you meet her today. She’s not been well the past few days and I wouldn’t want her to get so worked up waiting for a meeting.”  
Peter felt himself nod and get up, he only startled when the door appeared in front of him all of a sudden.   
“Uh ... yeah ... yeah, I’ll meet her.”  
“Very good, please follow me,” the doctor said hastily and ushered them out of the room. Peter wondered if he was embarrassed about the incident because there’d been such a delay. There had been talks about making the tests mandatory for the women, but the fallout with human rights organizations would have been too big would it get public.   
Good thing nobody seemed to care about the mutant children’s rights. 

 

In front of the doors, marked with “authorized personell only”, they came to a stop. The doctor said that only Peter was allowed inside and a nurse would take him to the room. They should take their time, and he should only go in if he was one hundred percent confident in keeping calm.   
Truthfully, Peter wasn’t sure what he was feeling at this point.   
Nothing?   
Everything?

Eventually he looked over to Wade, who was still holding his hand, keeping him from drifting off into the fog that threatened to overthrow his mind.  
“I ... guess I need to go alone,” Peter muttered, glancing down at their entwined hands, then back up into Wade’s concerned eyes.   
“Okay. I’ll wait here for you,” Wade promised, his voice low and earnest, and it made Peter want to cry. And run away. Hide.   
Instead, he swallowed his feelings and took a deep breath, nodded, and hit the buzzer on the side of the door. 

 

It swung upen silently a moment later and Peter walked past two women dressed in black, armed to the teeth, wearing computer supported glasses and earpieces.   
Right, men were probably not wanted here. 

When the door closed, Peter took out his phone and glanced at the picture of Bea he had as a screensaver. Hoping that her happily twinkling eyes and toothy smile would give him strength for whatever was to come. He noticed one of the women leaning to the side just a bit, but didn’t mention it. They were just doing their jobs. 

A nurse awaited him and took him to a door around a corner, of course watched closely by another armed woman leaning against the wall.   
“You can go in, she knows you’re coming,” the nurse said quietly, a serious expression on her face. Peter nodded, feeling like moving through water when he took the few steps to the door. His fingers closed around the doorknob and he turned it, carefully pushing the door open. He didn’t hesitate, not once, stepped inside and looked at the woman sitting on the only bed in the room. 

“Hello,” he ventured carefully, not sure what to even say, or how he managed it, given that he heard his own voice from far away.   
The woman’s gaze met his. She looked very sick, too thin and with ashen skin, and her fingers were all bandaged, as well as her wrists and ankles – she had the blanket pushed back to the end of the bed.   
“Hello,” she replied courtly, her voice little more than a raspy whisper. She stared at him coldly, then began talking when Peter couldn’t help but look at her stomach, which was extremely round.  
“Yeah, it’s yours, they tell me. The people in the lab ... they’ve tried so often ... so often that all I wanted was to die.”  
Peter felt like an ice cold, clawed hand had just gripped his neck. His throat closed up and he wanted to run, but then he thought of the baby and his feet froze to the floor.

“Uh ... if you need any help or ...”  
“No,” she snapped at him, eyes glaring with so much hatred that Peter almost took a step back. She took the blanket and pulled it over herself, while Peter worried if her intentions were to give him the ... _his_ baby ... or not.   
What if she just wanted some kind of revenge for what happened?  
Just wanted to hurt someone and told him to get lost?   
“I got you here,” she began, tone icy and cutting. “Because I want to offer the thing to you. After all, it’s yours. So, you can be here when they cut it out of me, and take it wherever.”

It took a minute for Peter to process what she just said.  
It sounded like she was talking about some kind of tumor, something sick that the doctors would just eliminate. To her, it might have felt just like that, he thought. And rationally, Peter could understand her, somewhere in his mind there was empathy for this woman who’d suffered so much ... but this was his child, too.   
“ _Okay,_ ” he whispered, pain and despair filling him up, his heart as a parent hurting.   
“So, what now? I want it out as soon as possible, so it’s your decision. Just never bother me with it again, you understand? It’s yours, and that’s it.”  
“Yes.”  
She lifted an eyebrow, obviously demanding a better answer than that.

“Yes, I understand. And yes, I ... we’ll take care of ... him? Her?”  
“What do I know. I don’t care and I won’t let those doctors prod and poke me all day. You’ll have to find out.”  
With the floor underneath his feet swaying dangerously, Peter forced himself to nod and stay calm, don’t freak out, don’t shout, don’t cry, keep it together, please.   
Just a moment longer. Breathe.  
“Okay ... um ... do you-“  
”Get out now. I’ll let the doctors call you.”  
“Yeah, okay.”

 

Peter wasn’t sure how he’d gotten back to the double doors, but eventually his steps lead him to Wade and he collapsed into his husbands arms, sobbing desperately.  
“Petey,” Wade gasped in shock, his strong arms closing around Peter’s shoulders, keeping him from breaking into a thousand pieces.   
“What happened?”

“She ... she said it’s either us taking it or ... or she’ll just leave it here or something, I don’t know.”  
Wade’s eyes widened, he stared at the door Peter came from, wondering how anyone could just say something like that. Then again, he could imagine the woman was in a very dark place from that time she had to spend as a guinea pig for god knew what kind of crazy experiments. Wade had been there once, too.   
Still, it was terrible hearing it and knowing that this was about Peter’s baby. God, what a clusterfuck.   
“Shit,” he muttered, his heart sinking at the thought of just leaving.   
Wade felt rage. For the situation the woman had been in, for the situation the unborn child had been in. He felt despair and frustration that there were still bases like this hidden all over the world, experimenting and ... and _breeding_.  
“We’ll take it.”  
“Yes,” Peter sniffled, his shoulders shaking through another sob.  
Neither of them even questioned it, it was just an exchange of statements. 

They stood there together until Wade felt the gaze of the security people practically burning into his back, so he gently coaxed Peter to go.   
“Well, it’s a good thing we still got the changing stuff and everything in the spare room,” he said, trying to lighten the mood a bit but failing miserably. Peter nodded, wiping his eyes with a tissue.   
“We have a bit more time. I ... I have to talk to the doctor again and ...”  
“Hey, no ... Petey, we’re gonna do this together. I’ll take care of the house and whatnot, and aunt May will be cool taking care of Bea. You just ... you know ... take your time to get your bearings, okay?”  
“Okay.”

They did talk to the doctor again, Peter barely managing to hold his tears back while Wade did most of the talking and even took some notes for Peter to read later on. It turned out that the doctors wanted to wait for the water to break naturally, so they could make sure the baby was ready.   
The woman – she’d never even told Peter her name – still didn’t consent to any exams and wanted a c-section as soon as possible, but as long as the doctors didn’t see that necessary, she’d have to wait it out. She’d already signed forms to be let out of the hospital right after the operation. From there Wade guessed it was straight to witness protection, new identity, new life. 

“Do you wanna go through the back?” Wade asked quietly when he manoeuvred the car onto aunt May’s driveway.   
“No,” Peter muttered, stumbling out of the car the moment Wade killed the engine. His key turned in the lock of the front door and right away small steps sounded in the living room. 

“Daddy!” he heard and Bea came running around the corner as soon as Peter opened the door, her blonde pigtails flying behind her. Seeing her happy smile, Peter’s eyes filled with tears. He sunk to his knees and pulled Bea close the moment he could reach her.   
“Daddy ...?” the little girl asked slowly, her hands on Peter’s head.   
“Daddy is a little sad, honey. But it’ll be okay soon,” Wade explained and his hand fell on Peter’s shoulder, too.   
The little girl stared at Wade for a moment, then she hugged Peter close, a very serious look on her face.   
“It’s gonna be okay, Daddy,” she whispered and Peter just nodded. She even pulled out her cloth handkerchief from the pocket of her pants, and dabbed Peter’s cheeks with it. May had given it to her and even stitched a flower pattern and her name on it.   
“All better now?” Bea asked quietly and Peter smiled, but there were still new tears welling up.   
”Yes, it’s so much better with you here. I love you.”  
”I love you, too, Daddy,” Bea said and smiled brightly. “We made cookies! Lotsa cookies!”  
“For real? Like, how many cookies?” Wade wanted to know and Bea grinned.   
“Like, sooo many cookies!”

“Awesome! Show me!”  
Wade shot Peter a meaningful look before he went to the kitchen with Bea, and the younger man quickly wiped his eyes again, but it didn't help much. The moment he looked at aunt May, the tears came flowing back.   
“What is it, my love?” she asked gently and took him into her arms, just like she always had when something was wrong. Peter sniffled against her shoulder and then forced himself to let go, nodding towards the sofa. Yeah, they should definitely sit down if he was to tell her what was happening.   
“I can't say much. It's … it's so complicated, aunt May, but you gotta know a few things.”  
She furrowed her brows, but nodded. Peter gulped, then spoke softly so that Bea wouldn't hear them over in the kitchen.   
“Bea … she's really, I mean biologically, Wade's daughter.”  
He let that settle with her, but she just nodded slowly, casting her eyes down for a moment.   
“I thought she looked very much like him, but … well, I assumed it was my eyes playing tricks on me.”  
Peter smiled, wiping another tear away.   
“No, it's real. She's … she's so much like him, it's crazy. I love it.”  
Peter sighed, wringing his hands, swallowing again.   
“I can't tell you how we got her … how … I … can only say that something very bad happened. Very illegal. And now … now there's this woman … who … aunt May, she's pregnant with my baby.”  
When Peter finally managed to look up, May's eyes were wide and her mouth was slightly opened before she covered it with a hand.   
“But … my boy, did you … I mean, does Wade know?”  
“Of course he does. And I didn't cheat on him,” Peter added softly, already guessing where her thoughts were going. “Wade didn't cheat on me, either. It's … as I said, it's very bad and very illegal and … so, so sad that this involves innocent children. But … we will take this child, too. So … well, I guess … we're gonna have another baby.”  
She had fallen silent for a moment and Peter looked up, not sure what to expect.   
“Well,” she said, quietly, and slowly a smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “Peter, that's a blessing, isn't it? For this child to have such a loving family waiting for it. For you to have another beautiful baby that you'll raise just as well as you did Bea.”  
Peter smiled, wiping his eyes one last time.   
“I'm so glad I have you. I don't think I can ever thank you enough for everything you've done,” he said, hugging the wonderful woman who's always been like a mother to him.   
“Oh, my love. You being such a great husband and parent is all the reward I need.”

They had dinner at May’s place and eventually decided to just stay the night, since they all had a bed ready at her house. Peter got to bring Bea to bed on his own, the two of them reading a story together while huddled up in May’s cozy, hand-knitted blankets.   
Peter was feeling a lot calmer, probably because he’d just cried everything out for the day, and he actually got sleepy as well reading one of Bea’s favourite fairy tales.   
“And they lived happily ever after,” he concluded as always, kissing Bea’s head when she yawned and rubbed her eyes, leaning heavily into his chest. “Wasn’t that a great story?”  
“Yeah,” she mumbled, turning in Peter’s lap and cuddling up to him.   
“You ready to go night night now?” Peter asked amused, putting the book aside to get up.   
”Yeah, I go ny ny,” Bea said, rolling up in her blankets right away when Peter put her down. She hugged her bear close and looked up to him sleepily, waiting for her kiss.   
“Sweet dreams, little princess. Love you. See you in the morning,” he said, leaning over the railing of the crib to kiss her cheek. 

When he made his way down to the living room again, Peter found Wade and aunt May sitting on the couch.   
“Hey, we just talked about some stuff,” Wade announced when Peter slumped down on the sofa with the two of them. He hummed and leaned into his husband’s side.   
“I’m gonna start clearing out our guest room this week, and May is okay with us using her garage and attic ‘n stuff until the house is ready.”  
“Good, good,” Peter mumbled, arriving at the conclusion a bit later that Wade was talking about getting a room for the new baby ready. He couldn’t think about this, didn’t have the space of mind to do so, so Peter quickly excused himself to go to sleep.   
Curled up underneath the blankets Peter lay awake, thinking of nothing and feeling too much, until Wade quietly opened the door and joined him, placing one arm around Peter’s chest gently, holding him until the younger man finally fell asleep. 

 

When Peter woke up, he stared at the familiar ceiling of his old bedroom. He wondered if he’d dreamed everything, hoped it for a moment, but then he heard Bea sing a song while hopping down the stairs. He smiled, but turned around and his his face in the pillow, not yet ready to face reality.   
A moment later he shot out of bed and cursed, realizing that he should’ve been at work last night and didn’t even remember to call in sick. He was half dressed and still cursing under his breath when he stormed out the door, directly into Wade’s arms. The merc gasped and balanced a coffee mug in one hand while stopping Peter with the other.   
“I missed work!” Peter blurted out, trying to put his shirt on, but Wade pushed his hands down.   
“You didn’t, calm down, calm down,” he said and took the shirt from Peter’s hands, exchanging it with the coffee mug. “I called the lab last night when you put Bea down and Stark has already took you off work for the rest of the week. ‘Cause of course that guy knows everything,” Wade explained, all the while ushering Peter back into his room and onto his bed, where he flopped down and took a sip of the coffee. It was just right, not too sweet, not too milky.   
Peter sighed out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, watching as Wade got a pair of jeans, underwear and a shirt from the dresser – all three of them had at least two changes of clothes at May’s house.  
“Thank you,” Peter mumbled into the cup, glancing at the clothes Wade put onto the bed next to him. “Is Bea downstairs?”  
“Yup. Makin’ a load of yummy pancakes with Nanna. And you’re gonna take a nice long shower now and then come join us for breakfast.”  
“Thank you,” Peter said again, taking another gulp of coffee. He already felt better with the warm liquid running through him, waking up his body. “I’ll ... I’ll go ahead. Leave some pancakes for me,” he joked and tried to sound lighthearted, but probably failed. 

He did take a quite long shower, standing under the hot spray for a while and trying not to think of anything. When he went down to the kitchen, he already smelled pancakes and bacon.   
“Daddy!” Bea greeted him, waving him over to the kitchen table – of course Peter got to sit next to her. There was already a plate loaded with pancakes and bacon waiting for him.   
“Morning, guys,” he said, kissing both aunt May and Wade on the cheek. He only spared Bea because basically her whole face was sticky with syrup from her pancakes, but she didn’t seem to mind one bit.   
“The best, Daddy!” Bea said before taking a big bite of her own pancake.   
“Oh, you saved the best pancakes for me?”  
“Yeah. Super yummy, twy it!”  
“I will. Did you help with making the pancakes?” he asked, picking up a knife and fork.   
“Yeah, I mix.”  
“And she supervised, so basically most of the work was her,” Wade joked, grinning when Bea nodded. 

After lunch – May really liked having them over and cooking a big family lunch – they went back home so Bea could take a nap.   
“Why don’t you just go and nap as well? I’ll do the household stuff,” Wade said as soon as they closed the door to Bea’s room. Peter turned to him with a little smile, feeling it getting genuine again and not so much forced.   
“Are you going to spoil me?”  
“A bit,” Wade admitted and leaned in to give Peter a quick kiss. “Now go lay that cute butt down, sweet dreams.”  
With that, he was off to do some laundry and probably some more organizational stuff for the house building – there was an incredibly amount of paperwork and supervision needed. 

 

The final load of laundry for the day was tumbling around in the dryer and Wade did feel pretty proud of himself for finally getting their hamper empty. He thought about preparing a snack for his two cutie bears and eventually decided on making banana bread.   
He just put it into the oven when he heard Peter’s phone ring in the bedroom and sighed to himself, wondering why he hadn’t thought of taking the little device from his husband. Of course there would be all kinds of messages coming in with Peter not being at work and all.   
On his tiptoes, Wade went into the hallway and to the bedroom door, listening if he could hear Peter snore and be sure that the younger man was fast asleep. Sadly, he was talking and not all that quiet either.   
Rolling his eyes, Wade went in. 

Peter put his phone aside the moment Wade opened the door.  
“What is it?” he asked right away, feeling that something was off – more off than already. Peter was sitting on the edge of the bed, his hands rubbed over his face and then into his hair, he gripped the brunette strands and let go.   
“I got a call ...”  
“Yeah, I noticed,” Wade mumbled, slowly kneeling down in front of Peter and prying the younger man’s fingers out of his hair. “Who called?”  
“The hospital.”  
“Is ... everything okay?” Wade almost didn’t dare to ask, a lump forming in his throat.   
“I don’t know,” Peter answered right away and sniffled, still staring down at his knees now that Wade held both of his hands, keeping him from tugging on his hair again. “They ... the doctors asked ... wanted me to ... sign some papers that would get me custody of the child already ... something sketchy ... because they need to do some medical exams before the birth but ... the woman ... she’s still resisting everything. She wants that c-section and nothing else.”  
“Shit ... you don’t sign that thing, do you?”  
“No. It would force her to basically give up control over her own body ... because ... ugh, as far as I understood it would classify the baby as a terrorist experiment and therefore belonging to the US government or something ... and because I was assigned with SHIELD a few times, they could twist and turn things to have me be the kid’s ‘handler’ – yes, the doctor used that word.”  
Wade rolled his eyes and wanted nothing more than go into this fucking hospital and punch a few people. Who in their right mind would even say such a thing?   
To Wade, it just proved once again that most people weren’t to be trusted in dealing with the whole ordeal surrounding the bases.

“Wade, I am so angry and so sad and ... _tired and so frustrated!_.”  
Carefully, Wade closed both arms around his lover. The younger man leaned up to him and sobbed, letting everything go he’d held on since they were back with Bea.   
“It’s all gonna be okay. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it. And you ... well, you know how those doctors were ... if it wasn’t healthy, they wouldn’t have it ... last that long.”  
Wade cringed at his own words, but Peter nodded, because they both knew it was true.   
“Yeah.”  
“And I don’t care if it’s a boy or girl. Think about it, two super cute girls? Awesome. Or a boy that looks like you? Awesome, too.”  
Peter giggled, sniffing against Wade’s chest and hugging him tight.   
“I’m just so worried, and I ... I don’t want to pressure her, I’m so thankful that she even reached out to us. It’s just ... I want the baby to be healthy. Safe.”  
“It’s gonna be.”

 

After their snack they went to the playground with Bea and Peter climbed around with her a bit. It surely distracted him but whenever he saw a mom with a little baby he got just a little sad. 

In the evening, when Bea came over to Peter with a book in her hand, one of her beloved fairy tales, Peter took it but didn’t open it.   
“Bea, sweetie, can we read this tomorrow? We want to tell you something,” he began, making an effort to keep his voice happy and gentle.   
Before she would go to sleep, Peter and Wade had decided to use the quiet time for some talking.   
“Oh, what is it?” she asked, climbing into Wade’s lap, sounding so cute. Lately she'd been picking up those little phrases from both of them, and always said them so confidently like she wasn't just a toddler.   
“You remember how you told me about Madeleine? How she got a baby sister?” Wade said and Bea nodded, looking up to him. Madeleine was a girl in her daycare group, and she’d told the kids one day that her parents had told her about a sibling arriving soon.   
“Would you like that, too?” Peter asked carefully, testing the waters first. Bea’s head whipped around to him and her eyes were big, and Peter was glad to see excitement shimmering in them.   
“I get a sister?”  
“Or a brother, we don’t know, yet,” Wade answered, keeping his own voice light just as if the two men weren’t worrying about the baby every night.   
“Why?”  
Peter almost smiled, because this was one of her new favourite questions.   
“You know that Papa went to work to help people, right?”   
Peter waited for her to nod.   
“And one of the people he helped was your brother or sister. And now your brother or sister is almost ready to come here.”  
“Where is she now?” Bea asked, probably already expecting a sister, maybe envisioning the two of them playing princesses together. It was a very nice picture, Peter had to agree.   
“In the hospital, so the doctors can take care of him or her.”  
As much as Peter wanted to settle on having a little girl, he didn’t want to disappoint Bea when it turned out to be a boy instead.   
“Is it a baby? A little baby?”  
“Yes, it's going to be a baby.”  
“Oh. Is the baby sick?”  
“No ... the baby ... just needs some more time. Prepare to come home, you know?” Peter supplied, hoping they could avoid the whole where babies came from talk for another while.   
“Like packing bags?”  
“Sure, yeah, packing bags,” Wade agreed right away.  
“So, are you excited?” Peter wanted to know, hoping Bea would still be such a great big girl for them and get along well with her sibling.   
“Yeah!”  
“And we gotta get a few things for the baby, so you can help us shopping,” Wade promised, always a surefire way to get their girl to agree to something – both she and Wade absolutely loved all kinds of shopping. 

 

Since they wouldn't know when the baby was born, it was time to work on getting another nursery ready the following weekend.   
For the time being until their house was ready to move in, the baby would have to stay in the guest room.   
The guest bed stayed, but they put on a fluffy blanket and the changing mat, then used the space around the mat to store some stuffed animals, diapers and toiletries.   
They were lucky to get the very same crib they’d bought for Bea, and get it delivered within a day. And since Bea didn’t need the fourth railing anymore, they even saved money on that.   
It felt so surreal for both men to now get a second nursery ready, for a baby that might be with them in just a handful of days.   
They found a box with bottles, the bottle warmer and other neccessities and soon everything was back in it’s old place. 

They still had Bea’s old carseat and examined it, but it didn’t even show a scratch.  
“Good thing I got us the mom van, with two babies in the back we’re gonna be packed,” Wade mentioned when he sat the seat down by the door to take to the car on his next run out.   
Peter just hummed, like so often nowadays he was lost for words. He was happy and sad at the same time, excited that their little family grew but terrified of what was to come.   
The past few days he’d spent mostly with planning for the baby, ordering things online they needed, and trying to wrap his head around having two babies in the house soon. Well, technically Bea wasn’t a baby anymore, but to Peter and Wade she’d probably always be. 

 

“I brought you boys something,” aunt May announced when they were just taking a break, finally revealing what she had brought over in a big shopping bag. 

Peter smiled broadly when she showed them some pale green and yellow knitted blankets with intricate patterns on them. And a bit similar to the one she’d given Bea.  
“Since we don’t know what it’s going to be, I thought green is nice for the blankets. It’s spring, anyways,” aunt May explained and unfolded the blankets, which smelled of laundry detergent and sun. The green blanket had little clouds on it and the yellow one had pink flowers on them and was for Bea, so she wouldn’t felt left out because they got all those things for her sibling.  
Even though they had explained everything to her as best they could, Peter suspected that Bea didn’t really understand what having a sibling meant, or at least not what it would mean for her and their family.   
She still was a great helper for them; she took the cleaned bottles out of the dishwasher and set them onto a tray lined with a soft cloth, then she sat down in the living room with aunt May and sorted through her old clothes. They sorted everything by size and color, surprised about the sheer amount of pink things. 

They had ordered another dresser for the guest room – there’d just been a few shelves in there that they had moved to May’s garage – and Peter unpacked the parts while May read him the instructions. Bea didn’t seem too interested in what they were doing and hopped over to the bedroom to Wade. 

 

The Merc sat on the floor in the bedroom, having found his Deadpool suits in a far corner of the closet. He had two now, his own and the pretty fancy one Stark had made him.   
He hadn’t told Peter, yet, but Wade planned not to go anywhere for a while, so it was time to stash all those things away. 

Bea came running around the corner into the bedroom and slowed down just in front of the closet.   
“What’s that?” Bea asked curiously, picking up the shirt.   
“That’s my ... costume. Remember, you got one, too?”  
“Yeah, I like it. It’s white and pink,” she said, sitting down cross legged in front of the box. She watched Wade start putting the clothes into the box and leaned over to peer at his belt.   
“Why you pack it?”  
“Because we’re going to move soon,” Wade said, putting one boot into the box.   
“You don’t need it?”  
“Not now. I don’t want to ... use it anymore for a while.”  
“Oh. Okay, then I help you.”  
Wade smiled, reaching over and patting Bea’s head. She was such a good girl. Perfect in every way. 

They put the boots away first, then rolling up the gloves to put in between them, then Wade took off the pouches from his belt. He gave Bea one after the other to put it into the box, but after two she stopped and looked up at him again.  
“Do you fight bad guys, Papa?” she asked, talking a bit slower so she could be sure the sentence came out right. Wade stared at her, unsure of what to answer first, but then he decided on keeping it simple.   
“Yeah, I did. Really bad guys.”  
Sometimes himself, the worst of the bad. But that he wouldn’t tell Bea, maybe never. Her coming into his life had marked a new era. A time without him being used as a walking weapon, dehumanized and then paid like a hooker.   
No, from now on Wade would live a life he’s never allowed himself dreaming of.   
“Papa, you look sad.”  
Wade snapped out of his thoughts and watched Bea come over to him. She hugged him close and immediately all the gruelling thoughts of the past were gone. Wade turned his head and placed a soft kiss to Bea’s head.   
“I’m not sad. Not really. Never when you’re with me. I was just thinking.”  
“Papa, you’re a hero.”  
Wade’s eyes widened and he looked at Bea in surprise, who just smiled sweetly at him.   
This hadn’t been a question.   
Just an observation of a little girl, who shared it with him because she thought he needed cheering up.   
“No, Bea. You are,” Wade mumbled and pulled her back into his arms. 

“Papa?” she asked quietly after a moment, giving no intention of letting go anytime soon. She’d always been a cuddler, and Wade loved it. “Can we both be heroes?” she whispered.   
Wade laughed, hoping his old, scarred heart could take feeling this full with love.   
“Yeah, we can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr :D Follow me [ here ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/) if you like <3


	57. Chapter 57

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! BIG changes ahead, I hope you're ready for the feels - I wasn't when I wrote it :P

The call from the hospital came about a week later, in the early morning hours. Peter and Wade had talked to the doctors again and the estimated – based on math only, not on testing – date for the birth was another one and a half weeks away. But apparently that little person had decided not to wait any longer and around midnight labour had set in.  
“Got the keys and your bag,” Wade said as he rushed past Peter, who was standing in the middle of the room, a mixture of sleep and shock glueing him to the floor. Aunt May was at the door a moment later, dressed in sweatpants and a knitted jacket – they had to wake her up so she could be there for Bea when she woke up.  
“Don’t worry, my boy,” she said, hugging Peter close, as always guessing right that he was worried and confused. “Everything will be fine.”  
“Yeah,” Peter breathed and closed his arms around aunt May, leaning his head against her shoulder and hiding for just a moment in her embrace. 

“You guys are really cute ‘n all, but we gotta go!” Wade urged, kissing aunt May’s cheek and then putting his hand on the small of Peter’s back to guide him out the door. 

Wade drove them to the hospital, thankfully that early on traffic was on their side, so they made it over quickly.  
It was all a big whirl of corridors, doors, people, words, and Peter could barely keep up. His nerves were in shambles and his hands shook so badly Wade had to help him cover his shoes before a nurse led them further into the medical ward. 

Two nurses waited for them already and soon they were next to the operating room.  
They sat in silence on plastic chairs, listening to the beeping and whistling of the machines next door.  
“Hey, look,” Wade stated after long, torturous minutes of waiting, and showed Peter his phone.  
“Bea drew a picture for her sibling. She wanted us to take it to the hospital. I put it in the bag for later but I thought it could cheer you up now,“ he said, showing a photograph of the drawing on his phone.  
Despite all his confusing, depressing feelings, Peter laughed softly.  
”She's so amazing,“ he praised, taking the phone from Wade to look at the picture.  
It showed their house and family – Peter, Wade, aunt May, her favourite bear and Bea. And then there was another little stick figure standing to the side, apparently waving at them. Above all of them aunt May must've helped Bea spell out „welcome!“  
It was so heartwarming, and suddenly Peter felt stronger for this day.  
“She knows, Wade. She knows everything's gonna be good in the end. That baby is gonna have a good life here with us.  
“Sure will, sweetie.“

After what seemed like an eternity, they heard the piercing cry of a baby.  
Peter jolted up, staring wide-eyed at the door. Wade's hand slung around his and they held onto each other, waiting breathless until two nurses came rushing in with a bundle in their arms.  
„It's a boy,“ one said, smiling as she held it out to them for a brief moment.  
They saw a small, scrunched up face, shivering hands, so so tiny, and just a little bit of hair. 

Then he was whisked away again and Peter felt like crying, but sat in silence as they quickly examined, weighed and measured him.  
“Everything seems to be alright. One of you can get ready to hold him,” a nurse called over in an excited voice and Wade nodded towards Peter.  
“You sure?”, he asked, wishing to see the two of them together as soon as possible.  
”Petey, I’m very sure. He should get to know you first. C’mon,” Wade said and motioned for Peter to recline in the chair a bit, which the younger man did.  
He took off his shirt and Wade draped the blanket they’d gotten over his legs until the nurse came. She placed the baby in Peter’s arms, tugging his blanket off as well so they could be skin on skin.  
Instantly, the little boy fell silent and Peter only saw him clearly for a moment, then his eyes welled up with tears.  
“He looks like you,” Wade commented, voice soft and a little bit rough as he covered them both with the blanket. Peter just nodded, not caring about the tears streaming down his face.  
“We will leave you alone for a few minutes, okay? If you need anything, just push the red button there. Please, enjoy some quiet moments with him, it’s important,” the nurse said, and smiled gently at them, a shimmer of tears in her eyes.  
Peter wondered how much the medical personnell knew of their story, of what happened to the baby. But when he looked into the older nurse’s face he guessed it had to be enough. 

The door closed and while the faint whirring and beeping of machines continued in the operating room, Wade leaned his head on Peter’s shoulder and the two spend long minutes just looking at their boy. He was wired up a bit, just because he hadn’t been monitored at all during his time in the womb, something stuck to his chest, connecting a cable to a machine, and another thing was on his foot.  
They got about half an hour alone time, before the young nurse checked on them again, asking if she could take the boy and dress him.  
“I can do that, too. Please,” Peter quickly said, not wanting to let him out of his arms ever again. He should know how loved he was. 

 

After having him cleaned and dressed, Peter and Wade were led to a different room with a wide bed and a comfortable sofa under big windows. Everything was so bright and nicely decorated that Peter’s mood lightened up and he actually felt hopeful and happy for their future.  
“Gonna be a nice two days in here. Do you want to hold him?”, Peter offered, seeing how Wade eyed the little one all the time. The older man grinned and nodded, then sat down on the sofa. Peter carefully placed the little boy into Wade’s arms, both of them happy that it didn’t wake him.  
“Man, it sure has been some time ... how tiny he is ... such a cutie,” Wade murmured, smiling and obviously already falling in love, just like Peter had the first moment he laid eyes on the boy.  
“Have you thought about a name?” Wade asked softly, his muscular arms rocking the baby gently.  
“Yeah, a little. But I wanted you to choose.”  
“Ah, forget it, honey. You’re much better at that. Also, I don’t have that many awesome people in my family who I would even think of honour with naming our baby.”

“Well ... I ...” Peter began and trailed of, looking out the window for a moment. Wade was glad that there weren’t any more tears for now, and that Peter overall looked a lot better than in the last few days combined. He could tell there was a huge weight, all the worries about the babies health, lifted from his shoulders.  
“What was your father’s name again?” Wade asked matter of factly and Peter turned to him, surprised.  
“Richard ... but I wouldn’t want to name him like that,” Peter said, his gaze looking miles in the distance.  
“Okay,” Wade said and pursed his lips. He didn’t think to hear such a sentence from Peter, but he could understand. He wouldn’t want to name their kids after his parents, either. Also, all the nickname possibilities were horrible.

“So, first name, first name,” Wade mused, smirking when the little boy yawned. “Man, he does really look like you. It’s crazy.” He smirked when he noticed Peter snapping photos of him with the camera they brought in the diaper bag.  
“There, that’s my Petey, back again taking pics.”  
“I couldn’t let the opportunity pass, you guys look too cute,” the younger man giggled, watching the picture on the little screen on his camera.

Wade looked down at the boy again, then at Peter who just now looked back up to him. “Would it be ... too weird if we named him Benjamin?” he ventured, unsure whether he was going too far or not.  
“Not at all,” Peter said right away, smiling warmly: He came closer and kneeled in front of the sofa to give the baby a very soft kiss on the forehead. Wade wished there was a way he could take a picture of that moment, but his memories would have to be enough.  
“Then I choose Benjamin,” he said, knowing that very moment that the name was perfect. 

Peter looked at the baby once more, then giggled quietly. “Well, it fits really good. Bea and Ben.”  
“Wow, we’re that kind of parents, huh?”  
”I guess we are,” Peter agreed lightly and sat on the floor in front of Wade, so that he could look at … their son.

“And for the second name?” Wade asked, smiling when the little one yawned and showed empty gums. It should look weird, but it was really the cutest thing.  
Peter fell silent and Wade noticed he’d been watching them when he looked up.  
“How about Wade?”

Wade’s eyes widened, he was so baffled that he had no words.  
“Yes?” Peter asked, smiling lovingly and Wade just nodded dumbly and had to look down, eyes burning with tears welling up. “He has so much from me already, he needs something from you.”  
Wade nodded again and the next moment Peter had to get him a tissue, but neither of them was afraid to show their feelings. Especially not in such a moment.

 

To take care of Bea and prepare some more things for the baby, Wade left the hospital in the evening, while Peter would stay two days with Bennie, having him checked out and monitored by the doctors. He personally never liked when Bea had to stay under the medical team’s watchful eye for too long, but now he wanted nothing more than to ensure Benjamin was well. Because nobody had monitored him all this time, they wanted to at least see if he developed normally.  
For starters, he did drink like a champ, which Peter took as a good sign. Somehow, the nurses had managed to get real breastmilk from a new mother who was on the same floor. Peter wanted to know her name, go over and thank her so much, but the nurse said she needed rest.  
“Well, tell her I am very, very grateful. And if she likes, I’d come visit to tell her myself,” Peter said while feeding Bennie his third bottle just before they went to bed.  
Of course Bea had been fine with the milk formula, but they all knew how good real milk was for a baby’s development, so Peter was glad about this opportunity. And apparently they didn’t take the milk from some other baby, because it was quite literally leftovers – the other woman’s baby didn’t even drink as much as she had to offer.

 

The first night in the hospital room wasn’t so bad, the bed was actually really comfortable and wide enough that Peter could sleep with Ben in his arm or on his chest, like he did with Bea. 

Once the ward had gotten quiet, bedtime for everybody was announced and the nurses finished their last check ups of the day, Peter could really relax and start his night with his son. He looked down at the little bundle in his arms, this little life that was litterally in his hands.  
He was so little ...  
Peter’s almost forgotten how it had felt to hold a baby that young in his arms. Somehow, to his eyes at least, Bea hadn’ really changed that much; she was still his little girl. But now that he held Bennie – Wade’s given him the nickname – Peter realized just how small and precious he was.  
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispered to the baby, who snuggled up to his chest, seeking warmth.  
“I was really worried about you.”

After a moment, when Peter just thought Bennie had fallen asleep, he opened his eyes. Obviously he couldn’t see much, yet, so Peter leaned in a bit, smirking when Bennie looked directly at him.  
“I love you,” Peter told him softly, listening to the little baby noises that he never knew he had missed.  
“And Papa loves you. And Bea. And Nanna May. You’ll love them, too, they’re the best family.”  
He made another small noise and yawnee, before sinking into sleep again in Peter’s arms. 

Sadly, that wasn’t for so long.  
Bennie woke up every few hours with loud crying, keeping Peter in and out of sleep until the first check up of the day. Peter almost fell asleep over his breakfast, and was definitely sleeping soundly when Wade arrived. 

 

Their little girl didn’t come for a visit, but they planned it that way. For the next few months, she would stay at the daycare a bit more, so that they could use the spare time on Bennie. Once they were all settled in and the boy slept a bit calmer, she would be home longer again until it was time for her to go to school.  
Eventually Peter and Wade had decided against a pre-school, instead Peter would teach her at home like he did before, until she was ready for real school. Well, technically she was ready for at least a pre-school already, so Peter mainly didn't want her to be bored. 

“I miss her,” Peter sighed when he received another picture from Bea, that Wade brought him together with the carseat and some more clothes for Bennie. This time she’d drawn how she helped aunt May with cooking dinner.  
“She can’t wait. She asked me first thing in the morning if he was here yet. But she’s okay with waiting if I bring her another photo on my phone,” Wade explained with a chuckle, and wend to work right away while Peter was feeding the little one another bottle.  
“He drinks like a champ. And I’m sure some of the nurses are in love with him already.”  
“Sure, with those looks.”  
Peter chuckled, then remembered where the milk came from.  
“Wade, could you bring flowers and a card tomorrow?” he asked and of course received a smirk from his husband.  
“Aw, I'd have brought you flowers anyway, you sweetie.”  
“Not for me,” Peter grinned. “For the woman who gives us the milk. I want to thank her .”  
“Oh, sure. I'll get something real nice.”  
“Thanks,” Peter said and tipped his head up to have Wade kiss him. 

“So, any news on how he’s doing health wise?” Wade asked, carefully sitting down on the edge of the bed. He glanced at the little glass window in the door and then unpacked the contents of his backpack.  
“He’s doing great. I signed off the blood test they wanted to do any this morning everything came back normal. He does have the usual amount of mutated cells but it doesn’t seem to be active, yet.”

Peter grinned when he saw a paper bag with fries and burgers inside. The hospital food wasn’t that bad, but after a night like his, Peter really appreciated some extra calories and just the feeling of indulging as he stuffed himself with fries.  
“This is the best. Thank you,” Peter mumbled before biting into the burger.  
“Well, gotta cater to my hubbie. You need some strength.”  
“For the next night of crying?”  
“That, too. Is it that bad?”  
“I kinda forgot I guess. He’ll surely settle down once we’re home,” Peter said, looking over to where Bennie was sound asleep in his little bed.  
“I heard back from the building company, they’ll start digging out the basement next week. Setting that up will take two full days, putting down the base for the house will take a few days as well, and can only be done when it’s not raining, so keep your fingers crossed,” Wade explained, showing Peter a mail of the building company they hired.  
“Oh god, that sounds great,” Peter replied, glad that everything moved so quickly now. A few weeks ago they didn’t even have a date set, yet, but now with another baby in the household, they’d have to get the house ready soon. 

“Any ... uh ... news from the woman?”  
Peter knew who Wade was talking about, and could guess why he avoided saying mother.  
“No. I mean, nothing personal. A nurse told me she’s recovering well and will leave the hospital in about two days.”  
”So we’re gonna be gone by the time they let her out?”  
“Yeah.”

The silence stretched on between them, neither sure of what to say, each of them lingering with their own thoughts for a bit.  
“Okay, change of topic, that’s way too depressing to think about when there’s such a cutie around,” Wade announced, nodding over to Bennie. “D’you think he’ll wake up soon? I kinda hoped I could get to feed him.”  
“God, after that night, I hope he sleeps for a while,” Peter giggled, biting into the burger again that seemed to be made in heaven. 

At last Bennie did wake up and Wade got to tend to him for a while. He stayed until the nurse was close to throwing him out, leaving with a big smile on his face and some pictures on his phone to show aunt May and Bea.  
For the past two days May had stayed with them, helped around the house and entertained Bea. Peter couldn’t wait to have all of his family together – he fell asleep that night with his son in his arms and dreams of his future filling his mind. 

 

One more day and a night at the hospital passed so quickly, and the doctors were happy with Bennie’s progress. He was quite a hungry baby and Peter was glad they got some more milk in a cooling container to give him.  
Wade picked them up with their car and documented the whole way from the hospital to the car in pictures.  
“Aren’t I supposed to do that?” Peter asked amused as he buckled Bennie’s seat in. Bea’s empty seat was right next to his and Peter couldn’t wait to see the two of them together.  
No matter how it came to be, having their little family grow was the best thing in the world.  
“Yeah, no, you gotta look all happy ‘n glowing ‘n stuff. You know, mommy and baby leaving the hospital, big day and all,” Wade joked and snapped another picture.  
Thankfully Bennie had a full belly and was sleeping soundly, not even bothered by the doors closing and the motor starting up. 

 

The moment they walked into the apartment, Bea jumped up and ran over, but didn’t say a word. May had probably told her not to scare the baby. She stopped at the end of the hallway, looking unsure.  
“Welcome home!” aunt May greeted happily, her voice more quiet as well, and there was a shimmer of tears in her eyes when she saw the baby. She hugged Peter tight and kissed his cheek, brushing a finger softly over Bennie’s hand.  
“So, what is our little man called?” she asked, and Peter felt a tug in his heart. Neither Bea nor aunt May knew his name yet, and Peter held her hand when he answered.  
“Benjamin Wade Parker,” he said, and closed his arms around May in a loving embrace when she leaned against his shoulder, laughing and crying softly at the same time. 

“Bea, come look,“ Wade said and gestured for her to come over. She looked up at him uncertain, but he gave her a reassuring nod, so she stepped over slowly. Stopping still a few steps away from the carrier, she leaned forward to peek in.  
“Oh,“ she whispered in awe, her mouth open. “He's so tiny.“  
“Yeah. He'll need a good big sister.“

Suddenly, she looked up, wide blue eyes shimmering with excitement. „Yes!“

 

From then on it was about a million questions.  
Would he sleep in Bea’s room? Why not? Could she play with him right now? Why not? Why didn’t he eat anything yet? Did he not like Papa’s cooking?  
And so on and so forth.  
Peter had never thought that one little person could ask so many questions over the course of a day. But he was glad that Bea was interested in her little brother, in fact she never left his side for the rest of the day, watched how Peter bathed and dressed him and even let Peter and Ben sit in the rocking chair in her room during their bedtime story.  
“I sit with Papa,” she announced and climbed in Wade’s lap, looking into the book he held open in front of him.  
They read their story like that, and Bea was very helpful in explaining Peter and Ben what the pictures next to the texts showed.  
“And they lived happily ever after,” Wade concluded like almost every night, and Bea nodded as if to say he’d read the right line.  
“There’s Cinderelly and the prince. The end!” she announced, turning to kiss Wade’s cheek, then hopping up to go over to the rocking chair. “Can I give a night night kiss to Benny?”  
“Sure ... here, very careful ... good, aw look how happy he is.”  
“He’s sleepy. Me, too,” Bea said and so very carefully patted the boy’s little hand, then lifted her chin for Peter to give her a kiss. She marched right off like little miss independent, climbing into her big girl bed and watching Wade tuck her in. 

“Should I get the little burrito into bed?” Wade asked, reaching out for Bennie already. Whatever else he said, Peter knew that Wade was crazy about babies.  
When he heard Wade talk to Bennie in the other room, Peter smiled and saw Bea grin. She probably found it hilarious that her Papa sounded like a muppet when talking with a baby.  
“Alright, bedtime for you, my love,” Peter said, turning on the night light on the shelf and turning off the big light. Colorful shapes danced over the walls then, and Bea settled into her pillow. 

“Daddy?” she asked, raising her arms so Peter could tuck the blanket around her again.  
“Yes, baby?”  
“Are there more?”  
“More what?”  
“Brothers and sisters.”  
”Uhm ...” Peter wasn’t sure what to say to that, but Bea didn’t seem to drop the topic, so he decided to go with the truth, as he often did with her. “We don’t know. Maybe, maybe not.”  
“It’s a surprise?”  
Might not be the most pleasant one ...  
“Yeah, it’s a surprise. But we’ll tell you as soon as we know,” he promised, because he knew she’d like that kind of answer. It was something definitive she could know, and that wouldn’t get her to ask about it a lot and remember the topic. Hopefully in a few days she’d have forgotten they even talked about it.  
“And now it’s time for little princesses to go to sleep. Sweet dreams,” Peter wished, patting Bea’s bear on the head and kissing her forehead. “I love you.”  
“Love you, too,” Bea whispered and closed her eyes, a relaxed smile on her lips.

 

Peter had no clue why on earth he’d assumed anything would change once he brought Bennie home. He still cried most of the night and was only quiet once Peter decided to place him on his naked chest and sleep on the guest bed with him. 

He was up when Bea and Wade got up, rocking Bennie on his shoulder who was also awake again. Bea didn’t understand why Daddy was so drowsy and just sat on the sofa, while her and Wade were all over the place as usual. She was a bit grumpy about it but went on playing after breakfast.  
“We’re gonna build a real big lego house today, you better get ready for it,” Wade announced as he cleared the breakfast table and loaded the dishwasher.  
“I get ready!” Bea answered happily and poured the contents of her two lego bins onto the floor. It was so terribly loud that Peter wanted to curl up into a ball from exhaustion but also wonder how in the world Bennie slept through that but not a nice quiet night in his bed.  
“Daddy, you play lego with us?”  
“No, sweetheart, I can’t,” Peter sighed, regretting that he had to say no to her. “I’ll play with you in the afternoon, okay?” he asked, looking over and feeling a tug in his heart when Bea pouted just a bit.  
“Okay,” she said and turned to her building blocks again.

Peter couldn’t help it, though, so he wandered off with Bennie after a while. He could finally put the baby in his crib and watch him sleep for just a moment, before he went to the dresser.  
There were still all kinds of clothes stacked on top, so Peter sorted through them once again, throwing out all the pink things, but keeping the neutral colored things and most of the pants.  
Peter just couldn't believe how many Disney Princess themed things they had.  
Probably sponsored a new Disneyland with that. 

There was an empty laundry basket waiting in the hallway that Peter filled up with the clothes. They’d ultimately decided to donate the girl’s clothes to the orphanages, to show their support. 

For some of the other things they were less picky, so they still used Bea's pink changing mat and the mobile with the bunnies for over Bennie’s crib. He seemed to like it just as well, and Bea wasn't at all mad about it, because now she had big girl decoration in her room, a set of glow-in-the-dark planets dangling over her bed that she'd picked all by herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a Tumblr :D Follow me by clicking [ here ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/) !


	58. Chapter 58

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D Back again!  
> So, this chap didn't turn out like planned at all. Just how it always is when a lot of characters come together - suddenly they do their own thing ò.O  
> Alright, then we'll meet again at the end of the chap, have fun reading <3

It seemed like Bennie was finally sleeping a bit and Peter decided that he might just check up on the progress in the labs, so he sat down in the living room with his SI laptop.  
”How’s the little guy?” Wade asked as he was wiping down the kitchen counters and then heading for the hallway.  
“Good, he’s sleeping for now. I sorted his clothes, so at least he’ll have enough to wear for now,” Peter said happily despite feeling like he got hit by a bus. He really couldn’t remember being that tired with Bea, not after he’d recovered from bringing her home at least. Maybe they had gotten really really lucky with their first child, Peter mused as he opened all his programmes; maybe this time they’d be really tested as parents. 

“And he’ll have a lot more, soon. We got mail,” Wade announced, carrying a huge box and a padded letter into the nursery.  
“Oooh, presents!” Bea cooed, jumping up from her mountain of toys and begging for Wade to give her the knife to open it.  
“No way, I’ll cut the tape. You can open it then, sweetie,” he said with a slight expression of horror on his face when he probably thought of Bea with a knife in her little hands. He even got squirmy when she had as much as crafting scissors in her hands.  
“Aww,” she sulked, but still got a little step from her room and brought it over to look into the box. She and Wade opened it together and Bea grinned when she pulled out the first few things.  
“Is it all gifts for Bennie?” she wanted to know, her eyes gleaming when she saw some blue blankets and sheets and some of those sleeping bags.  
“Yeah, uh ... maybe there’s something in there for you, too,” Peter hurried to say, fearing she would be jealous for all his things and felt left out or something. He got up and left his laptop on the coffee table, all programmes loading up and beginning to show him the past day’s data. 

Suddenly, Peter was hit by a wave of uncertainty, because he had no clue how to handle siblings so that they felt equal.  
But then Bea turned to him with her gorgeous smile.  
“No, Daddy, it’s okay! He gets the presents, so he’s happy to be here,” she said, looking so much like Wade again. She was such a little angel. 

Once again Peter was so proud of her and at the same time reminded how much she resembled her father. She talked like him, even looked like him whenever she showed a broad smile. And her heart was just as pure and good as Wade’s.  
While Bennie slept peacefully in his crib, guarded by the baby monitor mounted to the wall above him, Bea, Wade and Peter unpacked the box. There was a big teddy bear inside, with a blue ribbon tied around its neck, a few really cute outfits complete with shoes and hats, and two sets of Iron Man themed sheets – one for Bennie’s bed, one for Bea’s.  
“I think it’s safe to assume they’re gifts from Stark,” Peter giggled when Bea jumped around happily with the action figure that was in there just for her.  
”Daddy, he flies! Whooosh!” she said, holding the toy up high and running around the room.  
“No fair, she should have super cool Deadpool and Spidey toys before any other B list superheroes,” Wade grumbled, but Peter guessed he was happy about the presents, too. 

 

The following night proved to be just as difficult, with Bennie crying and even one time managing to wake up Bea, who was confused and cried as well. When Peter’d finally gotten Bea to sleep again – resorting to put a pair of Minnie Mouse headphones over her ears that she had for travelling – Peter only managed to slide under the covers before Bennie cried again. 

“Oh God ... I didn’t know how glad I was when Bea was out of that stage,” Peter sighed to himself and shoved out of bed to lift Bennie up and wander to the kitchen. Rocking the crying baby on one arm, he prepared a bottle of milk and then fed it to him on the sofa.  
Somehow he felt like it had been even easier with Bea, she only woke up about three times a night, sometimes only two. But Bennie seemed to be a light sleeper, and cried every two hours at least. 

 

Wade woke up at five, only to see the other side of the bed empty. He cursed under his breath, feeling guilty for sleeping through the night while Peter had to take care of the baby.  
But he also knew that the younger man would’ve woken him up if need be.  
Well, and someone had to take care of Bea, too. In about an hour she would be up and running, excited for kindergarten. 

Mindful not to make any noise, Wade tried to manage as many chores as possible in the short time. He wanted to take a bit of work from Peter’s shoulders at least.  
After getting showered and dressed, he took the laundry out of the dryer and folded it quickly, placing neat little stacks into the empty basket.  
Yes, he did grin like an idiot when a tiny onesie was amongst the clothes. It was pretty sweet to have such a little one again. He'd always secretly hoped they could have another child – he still hated those bases and all, but he did love children – and now that Bennie was there and healthy, he was over the moon with happiness, despite it being a lot of work.

Having made their bed, picked up the spitting towels and aired out the rooms, Wade ventured into the living room quietly. 

Peter was sleeping sprawled out on the couch, little Benny on his chest. Wade just couldn’t look away for quite some time, eventually noticing the shiny string of webbing connecting from Peter’s wrist to the baby’s back. 

“Papa?”  
A whispered voice startled Wade momentarily, but he grinned when he spotted Bea in the hallway, looking sleepy and a little funny with that bed-hair.  
“Morning, my princess,” he greeted, whispering as well. Wade quickly went over to her, lifting her up and smiling when she snuggled against his chest.  
“You’re up early,” he said, kissing the top of her head, while carrying her back to her room.  
“Uh-huh. I’m hungry.”  
“We’ll have breakfast in a moment, lets get you dressed first.”  
“’Kay.”

Luckily Wade could distract Bea for a while longer with picking out clothes, doing her hair and choosing what toy she wanted to bring to daycare today.  
“Can I bring Benny?”  
“He’s not a toy, sweet pea. But maybe we’ll bring him when we pick you up, alright?”  
Bea nodded, finally deciding to bring a doll – a Barbie doll dressed as a ninja, still rocking some pink ribbons in her hair despite the two plastic swords on her back ... and maybe Wade has had a little design input in that costume.  
Okay, yeah, it was a custom made Deadpool Barbie doll but whatever, he did things like that for his little girl. And the doll was so much cooler than those generic Iron Man toys.  
“Papa, I really wanna breakfast now,” Bea sighed heavily and Wade agreed, wondering if he could keep them both quiet enough. 

In silence they wandered through the hallway into the living room, then Bea turned.  
“Can I get cereal?”  
“Sure, I’ll put some fruit into it,” Wade said, sticking to their agreement to allow the kids some sweets or fast food every now and then, but only with some healthy sides.  
“Why is daddy sleeping here?”  
“Because of little Benny.”

“I get the milk!” Bea exclaimed and of course Wade saw Ben shift around instantly.  
The very next second, before Wade could hush Bea, the milk carton fell to the floor with a loud thud, startling the baby and Peter awake. 

Bea looked downright horrified when Ben started wailing.  
“I’m sorry!” she said, eyes big and round. Peter rubbed his eyes, sighing and patting Bennie’s back, kissing his cheek and trying to calm him.  
“Daddy, I’m really sorry!” Bea said again after she went over to them, looking at the crying baby in despair. “Oh no, don’t cry.”  
“It’s alright, sweetie, he was just startled. He’ll be fine in a moment, go get your breakfast,” Peter replied softly, stroking a hand over her head and smiling at the neat braids wrapped around her head like a crown.

Peter allowed Bea to sit on the sofa with him for just this morning, because she wanted to see Benny drink but also needed to eat her cereal.  
“He likes milk, too,” the little girl observed between bites.  
“Yeah. He needs a lot of milk to grow.”  
A contemplating look crossed Bea’s face and despite being incredibly tired, Peter waited in amusement what she would come up with now. Her thoughts were always so entertaining, so simple and innocent.  
“Daddy, I share my milk with Bennie. Then he grows and I can take him to daycare?”  
Peter laughed mildly and placed his arm around Bea’s shoulders.  
“It’s gonna take some more time for him to grow, we have to be patient.”  
“How long? Like, a week? Or a month?”  
Peter had to laugh again, because she was just too cute and talked just like Wade.  
”A bit more than that, I’m afraid. But you can play together soon.”  
“Yeah! I teach him letters and numbers, Daddy!” she said and then lifted the bowl to her mouth to drink the rest of her milk. Peter had his hands full for a moment, holding Bennie and his bottle with one hand, and a cloth under Bea’s chin with the other, so that she wouldn’t drip milk onto her clothes.

Wade took Bea to daycare then, where she’d stay until lunchtime. Somehow, this plan to have her stay a few full days a week had crumbled into their usual half-day schedule, just because they both missed their little girl so much. And although they had their hands full with two children, it was worth it seeing Bea so happy and bubbly, interacting with her brother and having an overall great time.  
Since he’d also taken Peter’s laptop to the Tower for a much needed update and synchronization with the main server, Peter busied himself with cleaning up the kitchen and preparing a quick lunch – fried rice with vegetables. He washed and soaked the rice and cut vegetables at a snail pace, because his poor tired brain couldn’t even fathom speed anymore. All he wanted was to sleep, but once he’d stashed everything away in the fridge, he saw that the laundry waited to be put away and of course the hamper was full again.  
Peter meant to sit down in front of Bea’s dresser to put all her clothes away and maybe check for too-small pieces, but somehow he ended up asleep on the floor in her room. Where Wade found him a bit later and carried him to bed. 

 

After he’d finished putting Bea’s clothes away and starting yet another load of laundry, Wade found the prepared veggies for lunch in the fridge and decided to make a dessert and then sanitize Bea’s play area. Peter and Bennie were sleeping like logs so Wade moved around the apartment silently, eventually settling down to check on a few mails from their building company. 

The quiet time was over all too soon because as soon as Bea was back home for lunch, she woke up Peter and they just about managed to keep her from waking Bennie up. By now, all their hopes were on getting their littlest one to sleep for long periods of time, no matter what time of the day that was.  
“Maybe we need to set up some play dates,” Peter mumbled, his chin resting on his hand as he sat sloughed at the dinner table, staring at his computer screen and trying to work while Bea was dancing through the room. Wade set a mug of steaming hot coffee down next to his husband’s hand, and kissed his head briefly.  
”Ya think she’s got too much energy? Why would you think that?” Wade giggled, watching Bea jump around. Apparently her half day at daycare had been filled with all kinds of fun, and she told both of them all about it.  
Peter tried to make sense of the lines on his computer, but he was barely able to read let alone understand a word.  
“Daddy, daddy, we play princess now!”

 

Yeah, it was definitely time for more play dates. 

So, the very next day, it was Peter who took Bea to daycare, with Bennie strapped to his chest and sleeping soundly. Funny enough Bennie wasn’t all that bothered by outside noise; once he was asleep during the day, he was out for a few solid hours. It just didn’t carry on like that at night.  
“Bye bye!” Bea said at the door to the daycare floor, very carefully kissed Bennie's head and then Peter's cheek, before dashing off to her room. Peter smirked, glad that Bea was so eager to start the day with her friends. There weren't many kids around who screamed or cried, mainly because most of the parents stayed in the Tower to work anyway.  
Over each of the doors to the daycare groups were now colorful posters that announced the group names. Bea's was called “the caterpillars”, with lots of little caterpillars made of different patterned papers glued to the poster. There was also a butterfly group and a ladybug group. Wade had told Peter that S.I. planned to assign mostly mutant children to the caterpillar group, and offer a full-day programme soon. Which no doubt had something to do with the fact that a lot of Kindergartens around the area declined mutant children. There were even some tests being made to ensure parents weren't lying about their human-passing child.  
What an unneccessary mess.  
Peter didn’t even want to think about what might happen should the public ever get to know of the orphanages. There was still so much hate directed towards mutants, even towards kids. 

With Bennie still strapped onto his chest, Peter went down to the labs. He had made sure there was no more testing going on involving biological samples, because there was no way he would get Bennie anywhere close to this.  
According to the schedules there wasn’t anybody supposed to be there, so Peter stepped right in and connected his laptop to the main computer.  
_”Welcome, doctor Parker.”_ Dee, the lab’s very own A.I., greeted him.  
“Hi, Dee. Can you update and synch this for me, please.”  
_”Of course. The process will take approximately thirty-two minutes.”_  
“Great, then I’ll-“  
“Peter?!”

He turned to see Julia standing in the door, a big thermo mug in one hand and a paper bag from a bakery in the other.  
“Uh, good morning?” he said in confusion, feeling just a little bit trapped.  
They hadn’t been able to talk much ever since Peter’s dropped out of work for a while, so Julia gasped when she saw Peter’s hand slide over Bennie’s back slowly. She came closer, setting her breakfast down on her desk.  
“Good morning. That’s ... a surprise,” Julia said and blinked, then took a look at Bennie. “Aww, how cute. He ... looks like you?”  
“He does. Long story,” Peter sighed, the lack of sleep always tugging on him. He was even too tired to be really nervous, instead he was just slightly surprised. Well, it had to happen eventually. Can’t hide a baby forever.  
“Wow ... is that why ... you weren’t there?”  
“Mmh.”

They stood in silence for a minute, Julia smiling down at Bennie, carefully touching one of his little hands with a finger.  
”How sweet. - This has something do to with the programmes, doesn’t it? We’ve had match after match coming in the past month,” she mentioned quietly, gesturing towards their desks so they could sit and talk. Peter just followed her, secretly glad that she didn’t seem to be offended at him suddenly having another baby, or that she didn’t ask any invasive questions. Well, she knew they could barely talk about anything concerning the babies.  
“It does,” Peter replied, gently patting Bennie’s back so he’d stay asleep. 

Julia sighed, taking the bakery bag and sharing half of her bagel with Peter, who just then realized that he only had a cup of coffee for breakfast.  
“I won’t tell,” Julia whispered just between the two of them, and smirked when a slow smile spread on Peter’s lips.  
“Thank you,” he mumbled around a mouthful of bread and then blurted out, “God, I’m so tired.”  
Julia laughed mildly, pulling into a soft embrace, one hand rubbing his back just like Peter always did when Bea was crying.  
“It’s hard, huh?”  
“So hard. I don’t know how we did it with Bea,” despite all his complaints, Peter laughed, and Julia laughed with him. 

They talked about work a bit, but not too much, and a lot about parenting, sharing horror stories as well as funny anecdotes until Peter’s computer was done.  
“So does that mean we’ll get to see our boss again?” Julia asked, helping Peter to detach all the wires from the laptop.  
“Maybe not now, but soon. I wanna spend just a bit more time with Ben,” Peter said, kissing the baby’s head absently. His colleague smiled, leaning in to look at the baby once more.  
“He’s so cute,” she whispered and looked up with a wink, “when he’s sleeping.”  
Peter grinned, and thanked Julia when she packed up his laptop for him.  
“Hey, how about a play date?” he asked suddenly, and Julia laughed.  
“I thought you’d never ask. Sure, text me and we’ll think of something that really tires the little ones out.”  
“And somewhere that offers coffee,” Peter added, both of them laughing again. They hugged, careful to not squish Ben between them, and Peter was really glad he didn’t make a run for it when Julia spotted him. She was a really great colleague, and friend, too. Maybe, if he had any say in it, he’d get her to work into his next projects. 

 

Before he could get back down to the car, there was one more thing Peter wanted to do. That he wasn’t actually supposed to, given his job, but that he would still do because he was only human.  
He rode the elevator up to the last available floor – about halfway up the Tower, because everything higher than that were private lofts and apartments of Avengers members. Just like he’d promised in their brief text conversation the day before, Steve Rogers was waiting for him in the hallway, so Peter didn’t have to look for him in the huge meeting rooms on that floor.  
“Mr. Parker,” the Captain said and Peter shook his hand.  
“It’s not all that official of a meeting, so Peter is fine if you want,” he giggled nervously and Cap agreed that they could be on first name basis. Steve took a look at Bennie and smiled, but there was sadness clouding his expression.  
“I met her, you know. The girl you told me about,” he said quietly, just so that the security cameras wouldn’t pick it up right away.  
“That’s ... kind of what I wanted to talk to you about,” Peter replied, his hand on Bennie’s back. “Look, I know it’s a hard time, I really do,” he said and pointed covertly to Bennie. “But I just thought it’d be ... nice ... if we could meet up? So the kids can play?”

Peter felt like an idiot asking that of the Captain America, but then again he would’ve loved this chance when Bea was that little. An opportunity to talk and get some tips, or just reassure yourself that you’re not completely screwing up.

Or maybe Peter was very wrong and the Captain had decided not to deal with the kid?  
Peter hoped desperately that he didn’t make an idiot of himself.  
“I ... I’d love to,” he said and actually looked relieved. “Your kid is ... from the base, too, isn’t she?”  
“Yeah, she is. They both are.”  
They shared a look then, now both aware that they were in the same position, maybe the only two resident Avengers – nobody else had come forth about anything anyway.  
“Well, then ... let’ s set up a date,” Steve said with a smile, seeming a bit more relaxed now, and took out his phone. They agreed on an afternoon the same week and would talk about a place via text.  
“I hope this wasn’t too weird,” Peter smirked, wiping some drool off Bennie’s cheek with his thumb.  
“It wasn’t. I’m actually glad ... that we can talk. It’s ... really complicated.”  
“It is. It’s gonna get better,” Peter promised, knowing full well that this was the truth. Cap nodded, and eventually picked up his phone after it had buzzed about five times already, excusing himself to another meeting. 

“That was a good idea, wasn’t it?” Peter said to Bennie when they were back in the elevator. Of course the baby didn’t answer, but Peter still liked to talk to him like that. He kissed Bennie’s head and they went back to the car to go grocery shopping and then visit aunt May and see how the house building was coming along. 

 

Just as planned Peter and Steve met up that same week at a playground. It was another hot day so Peter had brought an ice box in the car so they could all have some cool drinks.  
“You wanna try the new board?” Peter asked Bea as he heaved the stroller out of the car. They just used Bea’s old stroller for Bennie, but they had bought a board to clip to the bottom in between the seat and the handle, where a bigger sibling could stand on and ride along like on a skateboard.  
“Yeah!” she said and hopped right on as soon as the stroller was ready. “I can see Bennie.”  
“You can – no, no, don’t touch, let him sleep, please,” Peter quickly added when Bea reached out for him. “You excited for today?”  
“Yeah! I go play,” Bea announced and pointed to the very tip of the play structure they could see already. 

Steve was already there when Bea jumped off the stroller at the end of the path, walking over to their new friends. The little girl from the picture was standing next to Steve, holding his hand and probably hiding just a bit behind his leg.  
“Hi guys, hope we didn’t let you wait,” Peter greeted and shook Steve’s hand briefly.  
“No, not at all, we just got here. - This is Sarah,” he introduced her, and the little girl smiled shyly.  
“Hi,” she said quietly and Bea stepped up to her, shaking her hand enthusiastically. She was already used to meeting new kids and having a different sets of play partners from daycare.  
“Hi, I’m Bea!”  
“Hi, Bea,” Sarah all but whispered but she did smile sweetly.  
“Let’s play princesses!” Bea decided, holding onto Sarah’s hand and pulling her to the play structure.  
“Well, that was easy,” Peter grinned and went over to one of the benches lining the sand box. Cap followed him and asked to hold Bennie while the little one was awake. 

“I’m glad they get along so well. It’s nice to have Bea play with other children who are ... more like her. No offense,” Peter said as he handed the baby over to Cap, who carefully arranged Bennie in his arms.  
“None taken, I’m glad, too. It’s ... really a lot harder than I thought. Having a daughter.”  
“I hear you.”  
Peter smiled when the two little girls ran around the play structure, “Is she living with you?”  
“Not yet. But we ... I plan on taking her to me. She has nobody else,” he explained, and sounded pretty sad. “She still lives at the orphanage for now, until I got a room ready for her. And ... well, maybe some more knowledge about parenting.”  
That had both men laugh.  
“I can give you some tips, but the best one is to just keep calm. Things will go terribly wrong and that’s okay. She will probably cry and throw tantrums, but that’s how kids are.”  
“Well, then I hope I’ll ever be that relaxed.”  
“You’re gonna be.”  
“Do any of the books help?”  
“Not much,” Peter answered honestly, because he and Wade both had read quite a few, but most of the advice there was theory. “Well, the ones for potty training are okay, but I guess you won’t need those.”  
“Not so much, no. I feel like I’ve skipped a few important milestones with her, thought.”  
“Hmm, yeah. But there’s still so much ahead.”  
Cap looked over to him, nodding slowly.  
“Maybe a few more then I can even think of now. She doesn’t really know much about the real world.”  
”She was in a base all that time?” Peter asked even though he knew better. But part of him had hoped that the match came to be so late because their data bases had always been overloaded. No such luck, as always.  
“Yeah. She doesn’t talk much, at all, and she just ... I don’t know, she agrees to everything just because I say it would be fun or great. That’s ... odd. She doesn’t have much of an opinion about anything.  
After you told me, I went there right away to see her. I thought ... well, I don’t know what I thought. Maybe that she’d be like that boy we had to take to the hospital. Lethal and angry and brainwashed. Something I’d be shocked and scared to see. But none of that happened. She was playing with a doll, looking so sweet, and she smiled at me.  
They’d not yet given her a name, all she had was a number. I named her Sarah. My mother’s name was Sarah.”  
Peter wasn’t surprised about Steve pouring his heart out like that; Peter knew how hard it was to suddenly have a child and care for it. It wasn’t just the usual perils of parenthood, there was also a certain amount of trauma to be dealt with.  
“It fits her. A beautiful name,” Peter said, watching their girls climb onto the play structure. It was a relatively small and safe one, set in soft sand and equipped with round edges and lots of handles to safely grab while climbing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Steve smile happily as he watched his daughter.  
“Where’d you get Bea’s name? It’s quite unusual for this time, isn’t it?”  
Peter grinned, nodding and tearing his gaze away to look at Bennie. The little boy was sound asleep in Steve’s arms.  
“It is, but it’s the name of Wade’s favourite actress.”  
That had both of them laugh and Steve wanted to know which one it was, but he hadn’t heard of _Golden Girls_ yet.  
“Maybe I’ll give it a try. If it inspires so much.”  
“Yeah ... hey, can I book you for a few hours every night to hold Bennie like this? He seems to hate sleeping at night and the Avengers don’t charge that much for you, do they?” Peter asked with a smirk and Cap laughed, warm and happy.  
“Well, I’m glad that I seem to have some talent with kids.”  
“I’m sure you’ll do fine.”  
Cap’s smile faltered a bit and he nodded, making Peter glad to have said that. Because he would’ve loved for someone to tell him that when he was traumatized and worried sick whether or not he’d be able to protect Bea. Of course, his situation had been so different, and not all that rational since he’d had Wade by his side.  
“Thanks.”  
“And we could be babysitters for each other,” Peter proposed hopefully, because as nice as it was to have aunt May for that, he didn’t want her to be that burdened by now two babies.  
“Oh, definitely. I think we need all the practice we can get,” Cap agreed, and Peter graciously overheard that he’d said “we” again, ignoring the question of who else there was, as much as it was burning into his tongue. 

It was late afternoon when Steve announced they would have to get going, because the rules of the orphanage were quite strict.  
“And I do want to make a good impression,” he said with a nod towards Sarah, who just climbed off the play structure with Bea. They both came running over at full speed, their cheeks rosy and eyes bright with happiness. 

“Can we play again, Daddy?” Bea asked and hopped onto the bench next to the stroller. Peter took off her shoes and tried to get some of the sand out before switching her sand covered socks for fresh ones. Steve watched him and Peter thought that he might make a mental note to bring extra socks next time. Definitely saved the hassle of having all that sand in the hallway or bathroom later.  
“Sure we can.”  
“Next time, you’ll visit us. How’s that sound?” Steve offered and Sarah looked up at him with a big smile.  
“Yeah! I bring my ponies!” Bea announced and Sarah nodded eagerly. She was a quiet little girl, but Peter guessed that’d change once she’d get a stable home. 

They had everything packed up and checked for missing toys before leaving. On the next corner they had to part ways and it was the cutest thing that Bea and Sarah hugged for a goodbye.  
Sarah reached out for Steve’s hand and waved to Bea. The two of them walked down towards the nearest subway station. Peter thought that maybe Sarah liked the busy underground stations as much as Bea, found it interesting to see so many people and all the colorful signs and the trains. And that girl was the safest she could be in Steve’s arms. 

“Do you like Sarah?” Peter asked when they were on the way home, Bea happily walking by his side, holding his hand while he pushed the stroller with the other.  
“Yeah, she’s nice!”  
”She is. We’re gonna meet her again soon,” Peter promised, glad that Bea got to be close to other mutant children. They reached the parking lot and Peter unlocked the car, helping Bea to open the door.  
“She comes to daycare, too?”  
“Maybe, I don’t know, yet.”  
“Daddy, I think she’s sad,” Bea said all of a sudden and Peter had to double take, his hands stilling on the buckles of her car seat.  
“Did she tell you that?”  
“No, no,” she answered, just the way Wade would. “I can see it.”  
“Like you see when Papa’s hurt?”  
“Kinda. I see her eyes, Daddy, and it’s sad eyes. Sarah needs happy eyes, Daddy.”  
Bea looked at him with that serious expression she sometimes had, and Peter couldn’t resist hugging her.  
“She will be happy very soon, I’m sure. Steve is her Daddy, he’ll take good care of her.”  
”I think she’s happy with him.”  
“I think so, too. And he’s happy to have her. And I’m so happy to have you,” Peter said, kissing Bea’s cheeks until she giggled. She watched him strap Bennie’s seat in and waited patiently for Peter to get into the driver’s seat and start the car.  
As soon as their music started Bea leaned back into her seat, humming to the tunes.

A few minutes later Peter glanced into the rearview mirror to spot Bea holding Ben’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I have a question:  
> A Stucky Spinoff definitely happens here and is half-written already, would you like to read it? I'm a bit nervous about it, because I've just started writing Stucky a while ago, but ... I wanna XD I really wanna write this thing, so let me know your thoughts <3
> 
>  
> 
> Find me on [ Tumblr ](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/) ! :D


	59. Chapter 59

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys :D A longer chap today, and some more news:  
> We might continue with the Spin-off next week and then probably alternate every other chapter or so, because the two Series explore different plot points, but will of course come to the same conclusion. So stay tuned for next week ;)
> 
> Random fun fact: Originally the story would have ended now, but ... well, things happen XD So we have about one quarter of the story left to go. 
> 
> Alright enough talks, have fun reading <3

The next few days Peter spent mainly in the living room or nursery, alternating between taking care of Bennie and working on his laptop, Wade was all over the place. To Peter, it seemed like the older man wasn’t sitting still the whole day.  
First he took Bea to daycare, then he did some grocery shopping with aunt May, after that he came back home to take care of the household and prepare lunch, and he even helped Peter choosing the design samples for his company.  
“I think you should go with the usual red and blue. Suits you.”  
“And which font should I use? This one ... or this one?” Peter asked and showed Wade the sketches for the company logo he’d made himself. He could contract a designer for that, but he’d rather spend a bit more money on good business cards and the start up of the company and do the easy programming and designing himself.  
“I think this one looks a bit like S.I. ... Maybe this one’s better,” Wade said, pointing to the one on the screen he preferred.  
“Thanks. You’re the best,” Peter said sweetly and kissed his husband on the cheek, making him blush faintly.  
“Aren’t you a charmer,” Wade mumbled, leaning in for another kiss before hurrying off to mop the bathroom – Wade was surprisingly keen on having the whole house spotless. And then there was the whole deal with their house planning. 

By now the old house was torn down and the rubble taken away by a company, and another company worked on digging out the old basement to insert the new steel enforced walls. It had turned out that the old basement hadn’t been salvageable anyway, there was a black mold problem that neither Peter nor Wade were willing to deal with. So, Wade got to order the bunker-basement of his dreams that would serve as a sturdy base for their new house. 

They were already planning the interior of the house, having ordered the kitchen and bathroom equipment.  
Wade tried to fulfill all of Bea’s wishes for her room – and incorporate some of his own ideas. She wanted a princess room, so he would make a pink canopy over her bed, adorned with strings of fairy lights. Her closet doors would look like a big tree and Peter would draw it’s branches and colorful leafs on the wall around it. She even helped them pick out a design for Bennie’s room, very proud of herself when she’d instructed Wade how to paint a light blue and bright yellow pattern on one of the walls in his room. 

“By the way, what should we do with the spare room?” Peter asked that afternoon when the three of them were musing over the countless folders full of sample colors, floor materials and wall papers. Bennie was next to them in a rocking seat, kicking his feet as the device swayed him side to side, dangling some toys in front of him to watch.  
“Well, we could use the closet in there as storage, but I thought maybe the little ones can have a play room? There’s this super cute little slide I saw online ...” Wade said and Peter laughed, kissing his husband because of the way his eyes always glistened happily when he talked about plans for the kids or their future.  
“Alright, then let’s make it a playroom. See if we can contain the toys,” Peter joked, because the chaos in the living room would surely only increase when Bennie got older.  
“Great, then I’ll go over the final plans with the contractors and then we’ll officially start building out home. Sounds crazy, huh?”  
“It does. Crazy good,” Peter replied with a smirk and kissed Wade’s cheek when the older man rolled his eyes.  
“You old cheeseball, you,” Wade mumbled, pulling Peter into a kiss that made Bea laugh at them. 

 

With a toddler and a baby in the household, things were so stressed that Wade and Peter rarely got some time together. 

When Wade returned from his shopping trip with Bea the next day, he saw Peter having his hands full with Bennie, who seemed to have a particularily bad day, crying loudly and trying to wiggle out of Peter's hold. The ordeal went on throughout the day and by evening Peter was obviously exhausted. It took him another hour and a half to calm Bennie down, and when Wade had Bea dressed in sleeping clothes after her bath, Peter slumped out of Bennie’s room.  
“He’s finally asleep,” he sighed, rubbing his eyes. He looked like he might have a headache.  
“You tired, Daddy?” Bea asked, taking Peter’s hand and leading him to the sofa, which was the cutest thing Wade’s seen since ... well, maybe five minutes. His life has gotten pretty cute 24/7.  
“Yeah. But we can still play,” he offered, being such a good Daddy. Wade leaned over the back of the sofa and kissed his lover’s head.  
“Coffee?” he asked, feeling Peter nod.  
“I get it myself, you guys pick something to play. It’s better be something really fun.”

Wade grinned when Bea took off running to the play area, taking a small cardboard box full of tiny accessories for her little princess figurines.  
“Papa, you get princess castle, please!” Bea announced, pointing to the pink case sitting on top of her toy shelf. Wade lifted it down and started assembling, opening all kinds of little latches and clips to fold out a full on plastic castle, complete with two towers and a ballroom.  
They gathered all the princesses in the great hall then and then let them be picked up by their princes to go to the ball. Peter seemed tired even after his cup of coffee, but he insisted that he was still good enough to play a bit.  
When Bea’s bedtime rolled around, she got up and kissed Peter’s cheek.  
“You go night night, too, Daddy.”  
“I will try. Should I read you a story?”  
“No, it’s okay. Papa can read story, you go night night,” Bea declared and Peter giggled, thanking her for being such a sweetheart. He kissed her good night and watched as Wade brought her over to her room. 

Bea picked a story and Wade read to her, sitting beside her bed while she was all cuddled up with her bear.  
“And then the prince called: Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your pretty hair,” Wade said, showing Bea the picture of the princess letting her super long hair dangle down from the tower. “Look, she’s got blonde hair, like you.”  
”Yeah. She pretty.”  
“Like you,” Wade repeated and winked at Bea, making her giggle softly. He finished the story and was glad to see Bea’s lids droop already. He tucked her in again and kissed her good night, then put the noise cancelling headphones onto her ears, because she shouldn’t wake up when Bennie started crying again at night. 

 

Wade returned to the living room and was surprised to see the sofa empty.  
“What’s going on here?” Wade asked in confusion when he saw Peter kneeling on the floor in the kitchen.  
“I dropped the coffee ... and the sugar, too,” he admitted, wiping the mess on the kitchen floor with paper towels. There was a big sticky puddle on the tiles and Peter started spraying it with a cleaning solution.  
He looked like a cleaning zombie and Wade supressed a sigh.  
“Okay, time for you to relax a bit.”  
“Yeah, right. As if.- hey, what are you doing?” Peter asked with a confused smile, while Wade took the cleaning solution out of his lover's hands.  
“I'll clean that up for you later. And now you get into bed. Seriously, I mean it,” Wade demanded, waving his free hand through the air to signal Peter should get going.  
The younger man furrowed his brows, but did get up to wander over to the bedroom, simply because the prospect of lying down was too tempting.  
For just a moment Peter contemplated taking a shower, but quickly opted against it. Bennie would no doubt wake up a few times during the night and Peter really craved some sleep. All his muscles felt tight as he took off his clothes and fell into bed in just his underwear. 

 

He wasn’t sure bow long he slept, or if at all, then he felt chapped lips trail down his spine. Peter smiled, glad for the rare moment for just the two of them.  
“That’s nice,” he mumbled into the pillow, making Wade laugh behind him. Warm breath ghosted over Peter’s skin, waking up a desire that Peter had almost forgotten there was. Sure, he still wanted Wade like that, but recently he’d barely been able to keep his eyes open, much less use any other parts of his body.  
“Mmh, I could think of a few other nice things with you,” Wade’s raspy voice whispered close to his ear and Peter shivered. His pulse started to thrum low in his groin and Peter sighed, but shook his head minutely.  
“Wade, we can't. Bennie's gonna wake up in an hour or so.”  
“So? I’ll take care of him. You need some relaxation, you know.”  
Rough hands wandered over his back, his hips and around to trail over his stomach, then lower ... lower ...  
“Wade, I-”  
“Petey, I swear to god I'll get you off now,” Wade threatened and a rush spread over Peter's body. He looked at the clock on the bedside table, moaning as his body already geared up and got him hard.  
God, it's been way too long. 

“There you go, now just enjoy the ride,” Wade cooed behind him, dipping his fingers under the waistband of Peter’s boxers.  
“And what if I fall asleep?” Peter smirked, lifting his hips so that Wade could take off his underwear. A playful slap landed on his naked behind and Peter laughed, holding onto the pillow under his head when Wade roughly manhandled him into spreading his legs.  
“We’ll see how sleepy you are,” Wade smirked, diving right in and shoving his tongue into his lover as far as he could. Peter gasped and shouted into the pillow, holding onto it for dear life. Wade licked him open and quickly added just one finger to gently massage his lover's prostate.  
Peter was close to begging Wade to fuck him already when he heard the cap of the lube bottle pop open and felt slick fingers enter him, stretching him nicely. He felt warmed lube trickle down his thighs and wondered whether he had the strength left in him to turn around and topple Wade onto the bed. But before he could even do anything of that sort, a whimper came through the baby monitor.  
Peter groaned and of course loud crying followed, Bennie having woken up once again 

“Oh, no … please …,” Peter sighed, squeezing his eyes shut as Wade turned off the baby monitor. He grabbed something from the night stand, too quick for Peter to protest.  
“You stay right here, I'll be back in no time,” Wade promised and gently pushed something deliciously big into Peter, who's mouth hung open with bliss.  
“Hold on and have fun, see ya in a bit!” Wade announced and turned the toy on, making it vibrate in a steady buzz. Peter collapsed onto the bed with a sigh, his skin tingling and muscles contracting around the toy.  
It wasn’t the same as having Wade inside of him, but it was still so good that all thoughts just evaporated from his head, leaving Peter to the blinding pleasure surging through him.  
He came before he even realized it, stifling his moans with a pillow. 

“Aw, finished without me?” Wade’s voice sounded from far away, and Peter only managed to crack one eye open when he felt his lover’s rough hands on his back.  
“Couldn’t help it ... sorry,” Peter mumbled tiredly, groaning when Wade eased the toy out of him slowly.  
“Well, did you at least have some fun? Feeling relaxed?”  
“Oh, yeah. I think you're the smarter one of us.”  
“Oh god, I'm honoured. – Can you give me, like, college credits for being really good in bed?”  
Wade wiped the toy with some tissues and put it back into a drawer before flopping down into bed and pulling a blanket over both of them.  
“I’ll give you a degree,” Peter yawned, feeling all his muscles nice and loosened up, pleasantly tingling.  
“That’ll go great with the one I already have ... I’m a master-bator, you know.”  
Wade laughed about his own joke as Peter groaned into the pillow. 

 

The next day and most of the following week were mostly filled with Bennie crying and throwing fits. Eventually they went to Dr. Dearing with him, but she only concluded that he was perfectly healthy, developing right on time, not even constipated or anything else that other kids had troubles with. 

“I really don’t want to be angry at the crying. It’s okay, it’s okay,” Peter sing-songed to himself while he wandered through their apartment once again, rocking the crying baby on his shoulder.  
“It is pretty loud. Bea even wants her headphones now when she’s playing by herself. To be honest, I can’t blame her,” Wade agreed and sighed when another piercing sound came out of that little baby.  
“He’s also exerting himself so much, I don’t think that’s good.”

Wade hummed, watching as Peter tried once again with that huge scarf thing they got. By now they’d tried all the tips from the internet, even letting him sleep in their bed and learning how to wrap him up real good. Peter was just wrapping the cloth around his body, creating a kind of kangaroo pouch for the baby, when Wade had an idea.  
It was really a miracle the way his brain worked, and he loved every second of it. 

“Say, the doctor said he’s fine physically, but maybe it’s got something to do with his mutant-ness?” he asked, leaning against the kitchen counter as the dishwasher buzzed to life.  
Peter stopped in his tracks, Bennie just tucked against his chest, and was immediately rewarded by another loud cry.  
“You think he’s, what, changing? His mutation coming through and troubling him?”  
“Maybe he’s got something already and we just don’t know? I mean, he’s like you, so what was it like for you the first months?”

Peter mused over the question while taking another round through the apartment. He thought back to the spider bite and the mutation he’d woken up with a day later. Of course there was the super strength, making him rip doorknobs off. Then there was his sticky fingers, destroying the keyboard of his old computer.  
On the very first morning, for god knew how long he’d just been sitting in his room, overwhelmed by-  
By _everything_.  
“Wade, I got it!” Peter shouted, regretting it right away because Bennie matched his shout, crying and kicking his little legs against Peter’s chest.  
“What?”  
“I got it, I think I know what’s up with him,” Peter said, hurrying to his computer. He powered it up, opening a register of all the available materials at the S.I. labs.  
“What are you doing?” Wade asked excitedly, leaning over his shoulder. He reached around and patted Bennie’s back, but that only got him to be a little more quiet.  
“When I first changed, I couldn’t handle my hightened senses. You know, hearing everything, seeing everything, the spider sense, all that.”  
“Uh huh, uh huh,” Wade hummed, leaning in closer so that he could read what was on the screen. “So you think he’s got that, too?”  
“I assume, yeah. So I want to try and minimize environmental stimuli for him.”  
“Oh, talk science to me. Makin’ me all hot and bothered,” Wade joked, getting Peter to grin, despite the crying baby strapped to him.

Peter hastily tapped at the computer, writing a long mail to Preston, who’d be the one in the lab around the time Bea had to be picked up.  
“Okay, so when you get Bea today, I want you to get to the lab and pick up a box for me. Then I’ll try and build some things for him,” Peter explained, suddenly feeling giddy with happiness. Finally he’d be able to at least try and help his son, hopefully even succeeding and making him feel a bit better.  
“You got it. I also get us some donuts, ‘cause sugar’s good for thinking,” Wade added and went back to tending to the household before he left for the Tower. 

 

Since he couldn’t sleep through the night anyways, Peter set to work right away, Bennie in a rocking seat by his side as he sat down on the floor, all parts and gadgets laid out on a blanket. He experimented a little with different things. 

First he tried a set of goggles from the lab, but he didn’t feel too good about the rubber strap around Bennie’s head. So he scrapped these pretty quickly, instead rummaging through an assortment of glasses Preston had put into the box. That man was a saint, adding a note that he thought Peter could use a few more choices of glasses for whatever it is he was doing, so he’d gone through the lost and found bins.  
Peter found the smallest set and popped out the lenses. It was probably a kid’s pair of glasses in the first place, which was nice. Peter thought that he might order a real set of baby glasses for Bennie if that worked. 

He switched out the lenses through his own creation, then took off the nose pads and sanded down the wires holding them. In their place Peter glued some spare rubber, so that the glasses would sit softly but not slip all the time. 

The hardest part were the headphones. He didn’t want Bennie to live in silence, so he had to take apart a few old sets of headphones and modify them. 

 

When Wade rolled out of bed the next morning, he wasn’t that surprised to find Peter still awake in the living room. What surprised him was the silence.  
On his tiptoes, ready to soon hear the next fit of crying, Wade went to the living room and found. Bennie asleep in his rocking chair. The device was turned off, just holding the baby while he slept.  
Peter was standing at the stove making pancakes, prominent dark circles under his eyes but a proud smile on his face.  
“You did it?” Wade asked, whispering because he coulnd’t be sure.  
“I did it. It’s prototypes for now, but when I’m back at the lab I’ll make him better versions,” Peter promised, speaking in a low voice but not a whisper.  
“What did you do?”

“I made him glasses with green and blue tinted lenses to keep out overly bright lights or flashes. And he’s got headphones in to minimize noise but not cancel it completely. He can still hear what’s going on around him, but not too much any more.”  
“Oh my god. Petey, you're a genius!” Wade hissed, jumping over and kissing his lover, who laughed.  
“Yeah, I'm gonna sleep really well today.”  
“All day if you want. Aw, and he looks so cute when he's not super red-faced and crying.”  
While Peter was still cooking Wade sneaked up to Bennie and watched the baby for a while, amazed by Peter's inventions. Bennie wore little earpieces, and the glasses Peter made for him were on Bea's table, waiting for their next use. 

When he returned from taking Bea to daycare, Wade took over watching Bennie so Peter could get some sleep. And boy did he.  
He was out like a light the moment his head touched the pillow, even snoring quietly. The very next day Peter was at the lab, meeting with some people from R&D to help him with the 2.0 versions of Bennie's equipment. He returned home with a proud smile and a box full of different sizes of earpieces and glasses, so Bennie would have enough for the next year.  
“They were ecstatic about the idea,” Peter announced and smirked when Bea looked into the box in awe. “And I agreed to sell the models to S.I.”  
“No way!” Wade shouted, a grin spreading on his face.  
“Way. They're going to produce it cheaper and probably give it out for free to children who are either mutants or suffer from conditions that make them sensitive to light and sound.”  
“Making the world a better place, one invention at a time,” Wade praised, kissing Peter's cheek. “So, was this your first big deal with Parker Industries?”  
“Yup. We are officially in business. And already sold to the big names.”

 

With him being able to enjoy the world around him, Bennie finally showed his personality instead of crying all day. He was a real sweetheart and smiled a lot at Bea. Generally he loved being around his sister and would always yell for her whenever she ran out of his line of sight. 

Because he wanted to keep up with his sister, Bennie learned to crawl a bit earlier than Bea had, but that brought with it a whole different set of problems. 

The moment he first literally crawled up a wall, Wade was once again glad he couldn’t die. His heart stopped and there was a lot of yelling involved until Peter jumped after the little guy and plucked him off just under the ceiling.  
Of course Bea then wanted her own shot at climbing walls.  
“Nobody in this house climbs walls, you hear me! Think of my poor heart!” he yelled and caught Bea out of the air, where she started to float around using her own powers.  
She was allowed by now to use them indoors when at least one of her parents was with her, so occasionally she would entertain her brother with little tricks, like making his toys move and fly.  
“I can make you fly, too, Papa! Don’t worry,” Bea assured him, but Wade still insisted that there wouldn’t be any wall crawling, and Peter thankfully agreed with him. 

Bea still went to the daycare at the Tower and they soon realized that this wouldn't change so quickly, especially after the Mayor himself had secretly signed an agreement that would prohibit mutant children – even with dormant x-gene – to attend a human kindergarten or daycare. So when Peter started working at the lab again, Bea went with him every morning, leaving Bennie and Wade at home to tend to the household and oversee the building process of their new home. 

Just when the shell of the house was done and Peter smiled at the newest pictures Wade sent him over the phone, a message popped onto one of the screens in the lab.  
“A police station in California just filed a report,” Julia, who was closest to the screen, began to read. “And stated that a supercomputer was stolen.”  
“Supercomputer?” Peter asked, furrowing his brows. Since they were currently sifting through the data from the base's hard drives, they also had some alerts activated that would tell them newest reports that could be related to stray Hydra agents or former customers of the bases.  
“Yeah. It says in the report … that it was used by the biochem insititute,” she read, opening the file to get more information.  
“For?”  
Julia took a moment to scroll through the report.  
“For calculations on … DNA-engeneering ...”

An eerie silence fell over the lab as they all took in what that could mean.  
“That can’t be …,” Peter began, taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose.  
“Having one of these to do calculations could save you a lot of unnecessary testing.”

“But why didn't they just buy one?” Emily asked with furrowed brows, crossing her arms in front of her chest. By now they'd all gathered around the main working station to brainstorm.  
“Because the government tracks who has them. Not physically but by purchase. So that they can't be used for terrorist attacks or anything of that sort. And while Hydra can bribe and blackmail their way to maybe the military or politicians, the NSA is a different level,” Phillip informed them all, well aware of those situations.  
“So they hired someone to steal this thing,” Peter mused, staring at the screen. “Which might be … easier to do in the first place … because the investigations will look into … suspects associated with bioterrorism.”  
“And not into companies just going about their regular business. Or military bases operating.”

“We have to find this computer,” Peter said, urgency now settling into all of them. The report was only half an hour old and Preston was already on his working station, typing away. Peter sat down at his own desk, trying to help his hacker while giving new orders.  
“Julia, Emily, find out what exactly that computer can do and how it can be used for Hydra,” he said. Phillip had probably guessed his train of thought because when Peter turned to talk to him, the young man was already at his desk, mentioning he'd look for the ID of that particular computer and more details on the robbery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me [ on Tumblr](http://lunarogersofficial.tumblr.com/)


	60. Chapter 60

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I've missed you all <3  
> Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth so suddenly, but life's been ... rough :/ There's been quite a few restless nights and lots of crying, but it's getting better now, so don't worry. I'm glad I get to write again and I hope you'll enjoy the chapter <3

After lunch Peter’d called home to see how Wade and Bennie got along, but there were no complaints. Their little man was all peachy with his brand new gear – since he’d grown out of his glasses a few days ago, Peter’s enlisted the help of other S.I. staff to build a new set. The frame was overall a bit softer and would withstand a tumble on the floor or little hands grasping them roughly, and the lenses themselves weren’t breakable.   
Bennie had gotten a new set of earplugs – the final version ready to go into distribution with S.I. – and they were not only more discreet, but easier to wear for him. Overall they resembled hearing aids, with a cuff running around the back of the ear to secure it, but the plug itself was a bit smaller. 

Peter went on strolling back to the lab with a smile on his lips – Wade had sent him a picture just after their call ended, showing him and Bennie both with earplugs in, along with a caption reading “got mad beats”.

The moment he entered, his mood shifted, when he saw most of his colleagues back at work already. None of them looked exactly pleased with their research.   
“Anything new?”  
“Well, we compiled a list of things these computers could do,” Julia began and swiped a hand over her screen to have her notes show up on the biggest monitor for all of them to see. There were paragraphs from several different websites and scientific journals gathered on a big worksheet.  
Emily stepped closer to read from a list on her tablet computer.  
“The programmes on the stolen computer are mainly used for theoretical genetic engeneering, so all of the what-if-scenarios. So Hydra can tell the programme all about their remaining experiments and DNA stock, and the computer then analyzes the most successful combinations, and thus reduces the amount of actual experimentation needed.”  
“So it cuts down on time and material,” Peter concludes, understanding now why Hydra would steal something from a university. There wasn’t actual testing going on on campus, but with the right theories typed in, the computer could deliver helpful information about bioengineering.   
“And failure, too. They wouldn’t want to risk having to get rid of dead bodies, now that we’re on their tails.”  
Peter nodded, realizing that this computer was exactly what Hydra needed. How convenient. 

The machine landing in their hands now could only mean that they had some kind of outside help.  
“Alright, great work, that helps us a lot.” Peter faced his hacker. “What about this specific computer?”  
“We’ve got nothing,” Julia sighed, staring at the screen in front of her. Next to his desk Preston was basically staring the computer down like he wanted the thing to explode.   
“What do you mean nothing?”  
“Nothing,” Preston repeated, uncrosing his arms in front of his chest and sighing. “We wanted to investigate on those computers ... all we got was the number currently in use in the US and the ones sold from the US to other counries. The moment we asked for registration numbers or any kind of traceable ID, we got shut down. Literally.”  
“Did someone hack us?” Peter asked incredulously when he realized the lines on the screen were the computer’s own code, probably trying to boot or fix some broken data.   
“Not someone ... that was the government,” Phillip muttered darkly from the side, sounding more like a conspiracy theorist than a profiler. 

Still, his words made Peter think of the recent political statements going around involving mutants. It got worse, but until now they branded it with wanting good for the mutants. Give their children a better education, more fitting to their needs, and have them in a safer environment than they would be if they were together with human children.   
For a while Peter had believed them, mainly because his own children would probably benefit from being in an all-mutant environment. Their teachers and classmates would be aware that   
they shouldn’t startle Bea, and not be too loud with Bennie. 

“Dee,” Peter said, carefully uttered words. “Lock down.”  
 _”As you wish, Dr. Parker.”_  
The doors to the lab closed and locked and some of the computer programmes shut down to stop transmitting data out of the lab.   
”Privacy mode,” Peter ordered, hoping that this was the right thing to do. All their phones cut their internet connection, the security cameras turned off and even Dee itself went into standby mode, not recording their orders any longer. 

“What is going on?” Emily asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Peter gestured for everyone to gather around the main working station in the middle of the room, because allthough transmissions were turned off, he wanted to keep the conversation just between them.   
“Okay, listen, guys,” Peter drew a deep breath and got it over with. “Phillip, I think you’re right. People have been buying all kinds of services from the bases and I am pretty sure the mayor is involved in this.”  
“And they’re trying to stop us from investigating who has the computer?” the profiler asked, tapping a finger against his chin while he though about that theory.   
“Think about it,” Peter started, throwing a map of the university campus on the biggest screen. “The computer was in the sub-basement of the science institute, in the middle of campus, the most secured area. At least four locked doors and a fingerprint-scanner.”  
Julia nodded and pushed a scan of a police report onto the screen next to the map. Apparently one of the staff members on campus had called the police, but the moment the report reached the system, it vanished into locked and secured servers, never to be forwarded to other authorities. Obviously someone high up had their hands in that.   
“There were no traces of explosions or digging. The computer had to be gotten out through the doors.All the security cameras malfunctioned ... the university told us it’s because of a power outage.”  
“All over campus? With labs probably having backup generators to still run cooling and ventilation devices?” Preston asked, looking to his colleagues for confirmation.   
“Oh god,” Emily groaned and plopped down into her chair. “What did we do? We’re probably on some kind of watchlist already!”

“Do we have any means of finding out who hacked us?” Peter mused, sitting down in his own chair. Preston sighed and fell in deep thought, and Julia stepped from one foot to the other unsure.   
“We don’t, I think ... but if we get Stark involved ...”  
“He’ll hack into the government’s systems right away, but I don’t want to get him involved if we don’t have proof. It’s all assumption until now, Hydra might as well just have someone at the university already and that person let them in,” Peter said, feeling trapped. On the one hand, he wanted to make another move against Hydra, show them that they were still hunted down no matter what. But on the other hand he had to think about the consequences for S.I. and the Avengers. If they hacked into the government’s systems on false accuastions, the media outrage would last weeks.   
“You mean we have to do it on our own?” Preston mumbled, seeming more and more put off by the idea, which Peter could understand. No matter how much the other team members helpef him, the majority of this work would be on him, no doubt also involving night shifts.   
“At least try and find a trace first. Once it leads us to whoever blocked us, we can get Stark involved.”  
After a moment and a roll of his eyes, Preston nodded, settling to work next to Peter. They both started typing away.   
“We could try and see who else has some of those computers, maybe Hydra doesn’t need just one. Maybe we can figure out their next step,” Julia suggested and Waved Emily and Phillip over to her.   
“Good call, you do that. And maybe go through the data from the bases to see if we can get an estimated number of children still out there. The deliveries have to be recorded somewhere, maybe we can get lucky,” Peter mentioned, turning on a second screen so that his first one wasn’t getting too crowded. 

 

When it was time to pick Bea up from the Daycare floor, Peter left his team with the promise of returning early in the morning. He took home one of the laptops to do home office, so if he could get some progress at least he could only be tracked to the Tower. 

“Hi, you guys Aw, I missed you all,” Peter said, hugging first Bea and then kissing Bennie, who sat on Wade’s hip. They’d met up at the parking lot, after Wade had picked Bea up from daycare already. Peter had been running late and he was a bit moody at the prospect of working all night long, but consoled by his loved ones.   
“Me, too?” the older man asked, puckering his lips expectantly.   
“Of course,” Peter laughed, kissing Wade and then reaching out to hold Bennie, because there were the cutest little hands stretched out for him as well. He looked absolutely adorable with his little glasses.  
“Daddy, today was fun!” Bea said happily, hopping like a bunny all the way to the car before climbing in.   
“Yeah? What did you do?”   
Bea helped Wade strap her in, holding each buckle up for Wade to take, while Peter maneuvered Bennie into his seat. Their little man still faced the back of the car instead of the front, because it was safer.   
“We played with costumes! I was a cat!” she explained happily, showing her meowing skills which made Bennie stare at her in interest.   
“Oh, did you prepare for Halloween?”   
“Yeah!”  
Probably not, maybe it was more like a skit, but Peter was glad Bea was happy.   
“So, little Miss, got any wishes for Halloween? What kinda costume do you want this year?” Wade asked when he buckled himself into the driver’s seat. Peter sat in the back with the kids, so he could spend some time with them.   
“A princess!”  
“Alright, then we’ll make you the prettiest princess,” Wade said, probably meaning he’d make Bea’s costume by hand. “D’you think Stark’ll throw a party for Halloween? Like, for the kids?”  
“Maybe. He hasn’t said anything, yet, but I guess the daycare’s gonna plan something. They’re almost completely booked.”  
“Yeah, I noticed, lotsa little people running around,” Wade mumbled, turning to file into the busy city traffic. Peter nodded absently, thinking that there must be a lot of employees at S.I. who took their toddlers out of the daycares around, what with the stricter rules coming from tha mayor. It all steered towards no mutant children being allowed in places with human children, which Peter didn’t even want to think about.   
Of course his children needed special care, especially Bennie, but that didn’t mean that Peter wanted them to be separated from other kids. 

They made it home in time for Wade to start dinner preparations, and today Bea was excited to help him. She sat on the kitchen counter with her legs crossed and poured or stirred whatever Wade gave her. 

Peter would have loved to stay around a bit, but his work waited for him after dinner, and Wade promised he didn’t have a problem with tending to the kids by himself. They were laughing and splashing around in the bathroom while Peter made his way through lines and lines of code. His job tonight was to figure out what exactly had happened, while Preston would stay in the lab for however long he wanted to try and bypass their followers and try to locate the stolen computer again. 

 

After about an hour of non-stop typing, Peter heard steps behind the sofa.   
“Pulling an all-nighter?” Wade asked, his lips on the back of Peter’s neck. The younger man hummed, his eyes sliding closed under his husband’s gentle kisses. Strong hands landed on strained shoulders, started massaging softly. “Sure about that?”  
“I could use a break,” Peter heard himself whisper, licking his lips that were craving kisses.   
“Kids’re sleeping ... how ‘bout we go to the bedroom?”  
Peter was close to agreeing, so close, but his eyes wandered over the lines of code and information densely packed on his computer screen.   
“I can’t,” he sighed, forcing himself to open his eyes again, no matter how nice Wade’s lips felt on his skin.   
“Aw, don’t worry, you don’t have to get it up.”  
Peter snorted and hit Wade’s arm, making the older man laugh into his ear.  
“I mean it, we have to find our evidence.”  
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just thought I offered my supreme services and all.”  
“Oh, any other day I wouldn’t be able to refuse.”  
“Ah, ‘cause I’m so irresistable.”  
“Yup.”  
Wade giggled and walked over to the kitchen to start the coffee machine. He stayed with Peter for a bit, playing games on his own laptop, but excused himself to bed soon enough because he would be the one tending to the kids the next day. 

 

After three cups of coffee and a three-a.m. snack, the early morning hours brought not only bright sunlight, but also unwanted clarity with them.   
It was clear now that the government – more precisely someone in the Ministry of Defence – had targeted their lab after they’d looked into the case of the stolen computer.   
Peter had chatted with Preston, who had been in the lab all night as well, and they’d agreed to call Stark in for an emergency meeting in the morning.   
“So ... it was really an inside job? The effing government is in on that?” Wade asked while he cut up Bea’s pancake into bitesized pieces. Next to them, Peter was feeding Bennie a bottle of milk and nodded slowly.   
“Yeah. And they seem to be after us. I don’t think it’s the whole government, but some influential people working together.”  
“I hear ya. Pull some strings in the right places and swoosh evidence, what evidence.”  
“Exactly.”

 

After Peter had dropped Bea off at the daycare, where the nannies happily announced the new expansion to the upper floors, he went straight to the meeting room they’d been assigned.   
“Parker,” a serious voice was behind him all of a sudden and Peter turned to find Tony Stark himself stepping out of the elevator.   
“Mr. Stark.”  
They shook hands and then went to the meeting room without another word. Peter didn’t want to mention anything of their findings out in the open, and he was sure Stark would set up security measures before they started talking. 

Peter’s team was already in the office, as well as Captain America himself.   
“Good Morning,” Peter greeted all of them at once, and the Captain – Steve, he remembered that they were on first name basis now – looked up from his phone. It kept buzzing and he stared at it again, typing a quick answere to whoever was texting him.  
“Let’s get started. Jarvis, privacy mode,” Stark began the meeting with a clap of his hands, before pressing his thumb to the corner of the massive screen dominating one of the walls. It lit up and loaded some files that looked like government papers, and others that Peter knew were his team’s research.   
“Mr. Parker?”  
“Uh, yes,” Peter mumbled, a little embarrassed that he was so fidgety, but he still feared that all his suspicious could boil down to paranoia. He forced the lump in his throat to get back down so he could begin talking as he opened some of the documents.   
“We followed the lead coming in from NYPD that a computer used for theoretical genetic engeneering has been stolen from a universiy campus. Since it’s just too big of a coincidence that it’s gone missing right now as we’ve hit Hydra that hard, we wanted to get behind the case and monitor, possibly find the thing, and maybe get our hands on the last remaining Hydra operatives still out there. But, as you can see here, our attempts had been shot down,” Peter said, nodding towards his hacker who had made several screenshots showing how their communication had been cut off.   
“How the hell was that even possible?!” Stark said and jumped out of his seat to stare at the screen, although Peter didn’t doubt that he understood the lines of code in a fraction of a second.  
“Well ... uh ...,” Preston began and looked uneasy. It only now occurred to Peter that it shouldn’t have been that easy to get back at them in the first place. They operated from the famous high-tech Stark Tower, after all. “When I noticed that we ... might deal with the government ... I thought it’d be better not to lead them to the Tower, so ... I may or may not have relayed our signal ...”  
Stark was quiet and for a moment probably everybody in the room – except maybe the Captain – was afraid of his reply. But in the end the billionaire just shrugged.   
“Wasn’t that much of a dumb idea, really. But next time, you might as well use our systems, let them try and come for us if they dare,” he said nonchalantly and Preston slumped in his chair as if he’d been let off a hook.   
“So, we were understandably upset about that,” Peter continued and opened up another document that showed to where they could follow the trail of the other hacker. “And so we tried to find out who’d shut us down like that.”  
“The government,” Stark said right away and surprised everybody with that. It wasn’t that Peter had prepared a whole presenation to prove his point, but he had thought it would have taken some convincing.   
“Yeah. The traces go back to the Ministry of Defense, so we think it might be someone there or someone with connections there.”  
“Not the whole Ministry?”, Steve asked, finally putting his phone aside. Peter guessed that it must be some family thing going on for him, because he wasn’t usually the person to be glued to his phone in meetings.   
“No, they could never keep that under wraps, I think. Hydra has some contacts up high and they tried to keep us from following them more than we already did,” Peter explained, closing the documents on the monitor again so he could leave the rest to Stark.   
“Honestly, we don’t know what we should do now.”

Silence lingered a moment after Peter’s confession, then Stark fiddled with his phone.   
“I say we go after whoever tries to silence us,” he concluded, looking up briefly before typing again. “There are probably some children still out there, along with their handlers.”  
“Maybe some high-ranking doctors or personnel,” Peter added, thinking that – since they attacked without warning – some “transactions” had to be ongoing at that time. 

“What can we do? I mean, it’s the _government_ ,” Julia said and there was a worried little crease on her forehead. Emily’s words that they could already be on some kind of watchlist were still in everybody’s minds.   
“We show them who’s boss,” Stark said with a winning smirk that must’ve gotten him the odd phone number here and there. From Julia he only got a mildly raised eyebrow.   
“We’ll need more evidence, Tony. If we go after government officials,” Steve mentioned, his eyes almost piercing the screen in front of him. There was a lot of pent up aggression towards the government, which Peter could understand all too well. If the government or part of it knew of the torture the children had to go through, then Peter wouldn’t want to leave a stone unturned either. 

“And we’ll get it. I’ll send out some drones, make it look like a coincidence that they’re passing over the civic centre and Gracie Mansion,” Stark explained, already tinkering with his phone, maybe accessing the drones directly. Peter guessed that Stark’s personal phone could do about anything imaginable.   
“But won’t it be suspicious when there’s no official call to assemble?” the Captain mused, shooting Stark a look that made his fingers pause on the phone’s glass screen.   
”It’s not like it’s the government’s business what we’re doing or when we’re doing it, but ... let me fake something.”  
Steve nodded along, and maybe he, much like Peter, assumed the government was already tracking the Avengers’ every move after the attack on the bases, so they could warn their “friends”.   
“But, Mr. Stark, I think the government will know when the call for assembling the Avengers is a fake. Since there won’t be a real threat,” Julia mentioned, hesitating between the words because she was speaking to their boss directly.   
“Tony, we can’t stage something just to get information,” the Captain now intervened, moving to stand up, but Stark just waved his hand for him to sit back down again.   
“Yes, yes, I know you all get cold feet when big brother’s watching. That’s why I modified my own accounts on drone testing. To make it look like there was a test flight scheduled for the next two hours all along. I’ll even have S.I. tweet it.”  
“Hide in plain sight?” Peter asked in mild amusement, hoping that nobody outside of this room would see the same in the alleged test flight.   
“Absolutely. Cap?”

Steve nodded, looking up after a moment. Everybody in the room waited for his call, and after a deep breath he gave the command.   
“Go for it.”  
Stark showed a beaming smile, which would look like the version he presented the tabloids if it weren’t for the vengeful gleam in his eyes. 

 

During the “test flight” they all went back to their workplaces, trying to get their mind back into research and sifting through data. There was still a huge mess of salvaged data from the bases they had to go through, most of what was left at this point was video and photo footage that had to be viewed. Most of it was empty hallways, but since they wanted to keep all data concerning Hydra close, the staff working on them was reduced to three separate teams in the Tower.   
Peter and his colleagues went to work, Emily and Julia on the more scientific data left over and the others on the video and photo files. 

 

Around noon they finally got the call from Stark to meet again, this time in one of his private labs. The drones had successfully completed their flight and were all back home, nobody the wiser that they’d captured photographs on their way. 

 

There was a small series of blurry pictures taken from far above the mayor’s mansion and zoomed in. They could see a spacious backyard and a van with a cow and some milk jugs was printed onto the side. The back of the van was open and someone dressed in black pulled something out of it. Peter only realized after a moment that the arm of a small child was being yanked out of the car by a tall man in a dark suit.   
In the second and third picture it looked like there were two more children standing on the stairs to the back porch. 

“I hate to say it, but I don’t think the mayor’s gone all charitable and offered his home to orphans,” Stark explained, his voice almost vibrating with anger.   
“So there are some more children out there,” Peter said, staring at the picture. They had all feared it might be this was because there could have been convois delivering children to Hydra patrons during the time of the attacks.   
“And with selling whatever they sold to the mayor and maybe some of his friends, they have enough blackmail material.”  
“To get their hands on a computer that would drastically cut the time and failure potential on their experimenting.”  
“Let’s tell the press. He’s going to pay for this,” Steve growled, looking about ready to jump up and storm the mayor’s mansion himself.   
“We can’t do that, not yet,” Tony said sternly, sharing a long look with the Captain. “We need him to feel safe while we go after the last children and the computer. When we take him down now, they’ll hide.”  
“Then let’s go after them. Get those children out of there,” the Captain said, tapping his fist onto the table which was probably a held-back version of him breaking the furniture in half. 

“Jarvis, scan the picture on the side of the truck and find out what company this is.”  
 _“Scanning.”_ the A.I. replied and in the meantime the Team tried to come up with a plan on how best to go about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be with the "Finding Our Way" Series :D


	61. Chapter 61

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am finally back you guys <3 You've waited long enough, so we'll meet again after the chapter for some more info. Until then, enjoy reading!

A few days later Peter had just settled back into bed when his phone buzzed. He stared at the device like it contained the devil – the one torturing him with sleep deprivation, seeing as he’d just gotten back from changing Bennie’s diaper and feeding him a bottle.   
“Parker,” he grumbled into the phone and Wade turned around slowly, reaching up with one hand to rub over his eyes while the other stroked up Peter’s thigh to his hip. “Yeah, one of us will. Okay, see you there.”  
“Are we assembling?” Wade asked, his voice hoarse from sleeping.   
“One of us has to go, they found a lead on the missing children.”  
“I’ll go.”  
“I’m awake already, you know.”  
At that, Wade shook his head and sat up quickly, stretching his arms and legs before leaning in to peck a kiss to Peter’s cheek.   
“I know, but I’m the one to deal with the nasty stuff, so you keep your sweet butt in bed and take care of the babies.”  
Peter rolled his eyes, but even he couldn’t argue that the last missions had shaken him a bit too much. He had no idea how he would react to freeing more children from god knew what kinds of situations.   
The younger man looked up into his lover’s eyes, knowing that Wade was right. One of them had to be in charge of their kids and Wade was much better suited for this mission. Still, Peter would worry about him the whole time, no matter how many fights they had mastered together and how well he knew Wade could fight on his own. 

“Please be careful.”  
A soft smile pulled on Wade’s lips before he pressed them onto Peter’s lightly.  
“Always. See you sweethearts soon.”  
“I’ll send you a pic from breakfast,” Peter promised, because he knew Wade’s heart melted away every morning when he saw their kids with bibs around their necks.   
“There’s some pancakes in the fridge, I’m starting to get the hang of this meal-prepping thing,” Wade said proudly, while hurrying to the closet to put on his suit. 

Peter watched anxiously as Wade got ready and left out of the bedroom window, sending one last kiss flying his way. Eventually Peter settled back down into bed and forced himself to close his eyes. Bennie would be up again soon and by then it was so close to Bea’s usual time that falling back asleep was useless. Still, he tossed and turned in bed and was still awake when Wade sent him a text:

_”On our way to location – go to sleep!  
If you are asleep, sweet dreams (of me) xoxo” _

Smirking, Peter set down his phone and closed his eyes, getting at least a little more sleep before the kids woke up. 

 

Wade wasn’t surprised to spot a SI driver waiting for him at the corner, not too close to his home but close enough for him to see.   
“Mornin’ gorgeous,” he greeted, flopping down into the seat and grimacing when his katana swords dug uncomfortably into his back. He pondered taking them off, but then decided to just reposition them a bit when the driver took off at top speed towards Stark Tower. 

The briefing before the mission was almost non-existant – they met up right at the SI weapon’s labs and weren’t even given coordinates or details about the location, which nobody would have listened to anyway. The fucking place might as well be in satan’s summer residence and they’d all still be in.   
Everybody was quiet while they geared up, their minds only focused on these last children they had to save.   
Of course Wade got to stock up with all the best ammo and tech at the Tower, even though he technically didn’t need to – why let all that nice stuff go to waste? He could always save some for bad times.

Their team was small, only ten people, but all of them highly skilled.  
Good old Tasky was there with them, and of course Logan. Wanda Maximoff was with them again, she’d guard the jet and make sure nobody got in their way.   
But Wade was most surprised to see Captain America instead of the Winter Soldier. Usually it was Bucky’s turn whenever things got too dark, kind of like Wade stepped in for Peter. 

A small tech team was with them, advising them in SI’s equipment and when they were all set up one of them opened a big box sitting on the table.   
“Please take one set each, there will be refills stocked on the jet,” a small guy, maybe the boss of the others, explained to them and handed out small glass tubes.

“What is it?” Wade asked, turning the little vial and finding his stomach mimicking the action when he realized it was hiding a needle under a chamber filled with light blue liquid.   
“Tranquillizers. Suited for mutants and humans, measured roughly for children aged two and up. If it doesn’t make them sleep it’ll at least slow them down a lot,” the technician explained, keeping his distance to most of the team except from Captain America. Yeah, the guy dressed like the most patriotic person to ever shout USA at a football match was probably trustier than the rest of them.   
“You think they will be hostile? The children and handlers are human,” Wanda mentioned, taking a pack nonetheless.  
“Human and traumatized. They won’t just go with us because we want them to,” Logan reminded, stocking up a belt pack with the vials and securing it to his side. Wade took two handfuls of the injectors and stuffed them into his pouches. He didn’t want to use them, but he understood that he might have to. 

 

Wade wasn’t at all surprised when the route took them to some of the worst areas just outside the city and then of course to the places who were known to sell basically everything from drugs to sex to body parts. No demand was too outlandish as long as you got enough money and asked the right people. Anonymity was a given, so nobody would bat an eye when a truck full of children made its way through. 

 

Their little trip ended just a turn away from where Wade remembered two blocks with nothing but brothels and BDSM dungeons being located. And not the good kind.   
“Get ready,” the Captain’s calm voice sounded in their ears and the clicking of unlocking guns overly loud in the jet. They still had the cloaking mechanism on – despite it technically being illegal in the city – and landed silently on the highest building they could find, which was a run-down tower once used by a car insurance company.   
“We’re going in and try to get the job done as fast as possible, no drawn-out brawls, we can’t risk word spreading around here.”  
“Are we expecting company?” Logan asked, flexing his fingers in anticipation already when the ever present AI Jarvis answered him.   
_“You will hopefully only be met by guards. The vehicles transporting children left the area about an hour ago and based on latest data won’t be coming back for most of the night. I will do my best to alert you should any suspicious individuals get close.”_  
“Alright. I want you to alert the team at the Tower as soon as the last child is on board the jet, no matter where we are at that point. It’s more important to get the kids away from here,” Cap decided and nobody had any objections to this. After all, most of them had found their way home from all kinds of crazy situations.   
_“Certainly, Sir.”_

They waited another five minutes and watched the streets around from the security of the roof, but it was a relatively quiet night. There were a few dogs barking, loud electric beats drummed from one of the houses at a far corner – a typical night in this kind of neighborhood.   
“We're going in.”

They followed the Captain slowly, one by one advancing in their own way until they were close enough to simply kick down the front door.   
“Good evening, ladies!” Wade bellowed, wasting no time shooting the guys in the room right between the eyes. Thankfully SI had only supplied him with electric darts for all his weapons. Hit by either Wade or the Cap's shield, the men slumped to the floor and the women fell silent. None of them screamed, since they’d probably experienced worse things than being held at gunpoint throughout their lives. Two even went up the stairs as if nothing happened. 

“Where are the children?” he demanded now, pointing the gun at one of the women sitting on the floor in the far corner of what probably used to be a living room. Just a few dirty sofas and a cracked flat screen TV were still there, currently playing some porn, and all other furniture was missing.   
“I'll have a look around upstairs,” Logan growled, flexing his hands and giving all the humans around a good look at his sharp claws. 

Stepping closer Wade realized it wasn’t really women facing them – most of them couldn’t have been older than fifteen. Wade felt bad for threatening them, but he had no other choice. Nobody answered so he let the round click into the chamber.   
“Tell me or I’ll shoot her,” he growled, pointing the barrell at a blonde girl sitting hunched over on the floor, leaving no doubt in his voice that he’d do it. She looked sick, so maybe the others would want to protect her.   
Well, he’d done worse back in his days but deep down he really hoped he wouldn’t really have to do it.   
“In the basement,” a small voice answered, one of the women pressed to the wall.   
Of fucking course.   
“Nobody moves a fucking inch or you're all dead,” Wade threatened in his best Deadpool voice and went further into the room so Cap could safely get to the staircase leading down. 

“Are … are they dead?” one of the girls asked, nodding towards the men on the floor, still out cold.   
“I wish,” the Merc grumbled and felt a hand on his shoulder. Tasky had joined them and took over his spot, tilting his head towards the entrance to the basement to signal that Wade should follow Cap down there.   
“On it, Tasky.”

There wasn't a single light on the stairs, but Cap had his flashlight on downstairs, so Wade could at least guess the steps. 

“This looks surprisingly normal,” Wade muttered as he'd made his way down the narrow staircase, eventually finding and activating his own flashlight. Everything was lined with wood and the steps creaked obnoxiously. The walls and floor looked slightly damp and there were tools and boxes on shelves all around.  
“Too normal, maybe,” Cap mentioned and they began running their hands over the furniture, pushing and pulling things around while looking for a secret entrance.

They weren't surprised to find the obligatory shelf hiding a door, but the state of the room behind it was astounding. It was quite big, big enough to fit their whole team comfortably.   
Every single thing in there – from the sleek front desk to the mall-style lockers covering one side of the room to shoe shelves and coathangers – was white.   
The only thing standing out was a off-grey door at the other end of the room, right next to the front desk.   
“What the shit is this, some kind of post-apocalyptic leader's headquarters?” Wade mumbled, stalking over to the door, unable to find any kind of opening mechanism. He was about to just shoot at the door, hearing the rest of their teammates make their way downstairs to join them.   
They were in a hurry, fuck, they couldn't-  
“Try this one,” Cap said next to him and stuck a small black box to the door. It was equipped with SI's best tech to find the door's locking mechanism, detect explosives and only override the lock when there was no danger. After all, they didn't feel like blowing the whole block up. 

“What's taking so long?” Logan asked from the bottom of the stairs, trying to peek into the small room.   
“We're trying to unlock the door. Everything okay up there?” Cap asked, his voice tense and the grip around the strap of his shield tightening.   
“Yeah, we've got some women who wanna get out of here with us, Wanda's contacting the Tower about it, but we're probably get them to the local authorities.”  
He explained all this while looking up and when he seemed satisfied with the quiet voices from above, Logan joined them the moment the door unlocked with an overly loud click.   
“Get Taskmaster down here, we've got the door open,” Cap whispered into the comm and Wade opened the pouch with the tranquillizers. 

“Ready?” the Captain asked and both Wade and Logan hummed their agreement. They couldn't be sure what was hiding behind the steel enforced door so they drew their weapons, ready to attack when Cap slowly pulled the door open.   
There was nobody awaiting them, which wasn't all that unusual considering the steroid-pumped guards they met at the front door. 

They quickly realized that the hallway behind the door was too narrow to fit all of them, so the most they could do was two people working in there at any given time. And even then they'd have to squeeze past one another sideways. 

There were about a dozen polished windows to each side of the corridor, separated by a small white stripe of what looked like plastic. Some cells were lit up, some weren't, and Wade could make out numbers and a keypad between the cells. 

Each cell held only one child in them, chained to the padded walls, either with their whole body or just by the ankles. The ones in the lit up cells were absolutely naked, the other ones – Wade found out when he flicked on his flashlight – were dressed in either medical gowns or old t-shirts too big for them. 

Confused stares turned into horrified ones the second they realized what they were looking at. 

This whole get up was a vending machine. 

A sick little playpen for paedophiles. 

 

“I … this is the nastiest thing … I've ever seen … good god,” Wade breathed, fighting the urge to shiver under the cold sweat running down his back.   
“They’re here, get ready,” the Captain growled into his communicator, alerting the rest of the team. Not a second later Taskmaster's heavy steps echoed through the basement and he was with them, his mask not giving away anything as he took in the scenery of the hidden room.

“Logan, go back upstairs and take a few people to take a look at the neighboring houses,” Cap said and reached out to lean his shield next to the door to this little cell block.   
“You open the doors, I’ll go in,” Wade said, already guessing the good Captain’s apprehension before he looked into his eyes. The poor guy was too good to be down here, war or no war, this would haunt all of them. He nodded, proceeding to stick the few black boxes they had underneath the control panels, alternating them whenever a door unlocked. 

 

Wade had to focus on a random spot on the wall as he went into the first cell that the Captain had opened. The little girl inside cried right away, wailing loudly and maybe saying something, but Wade couldn’t make out the words. He just stalked over to her, trying hard not to look so that the image of the bruised, naked child wouldn’t follow him forever. The unwelcome thought that she couldn’t be much older than Bea invaded his brain and Wade quickly pushed the injector to the girl’s arm. Within seconds she slumped to the ground. After pulling one of the first-aid blankets from his belt, Wade wrapped the girl up in it, broke the chain around her ankle and carried her to the top of the stairs.   
“I've got her,” Wanda said, her voice shaking but her hands steady as she took the girl in her arms to rush outside. She'd make sure all the kids got onto the jet where two-person med team – the most they could transport – was waiting for their patients. For the teams and their on-flight safety the kids would have to be strapped in again on the jet, but Wade hoped that after that, they wouldn't have to experience this ever again.

Taking a big steadying breath and fighting the urge to look at his phone at the pictures of his children, who were happy and safe, Wade went back in to continue the mission.

The next cell wasn’t better at all, the boy inside the dark cell thankfully unconscious, but so bloody and bruised that Wade felt his body run ice cold, thinking the child was dead. He relaxed a little when he found a pulse, a bit faint, but there. He wasn't even chained to anything, so Wade wrapped him in a blanket and ran to the stairs, urging Wanda to hurry and get him to safety. 

Wade didn't think it could possibly any worse, but he spotted something that sure was, and quickly went over to the dimly lit cell before Cap or anybody else could get there. Unlike the other cabins of this twisted setup, this one featured a medical table in the middle of the padded floor. The only lamp in the room – a red one, of course – was right above it, providing enough lighting to let Wade clearly see the small child strapped to it in an explicit pose.  
Feeling bile rise up to his throat, Wade ripped off all the straps and wrapped the child up to carry it outside, shaking all over.

 

The team went on like this, clearing out the cells, until they reached the end of the corridor. 

Maybe nobody had bothered looking before, maybe they'd all been too caught up in the gruesome displays inside the cells. But when Wade looked up out of habit – he, too, liked to place shooting traps at about head level – he noticed a faint red light. It was barely noticeable, but Wade had no doubt that it indicated a security camera.   
Tilting his head a little, he lifted one hand and flipped the camera off before shooting it with the other hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've missed writing a lot <3 Unfortunately I got quite sick and although I'm back home and feeling better, my meds give me crazy side effects :( They make me a bit forgetful and I sometimes have trouble finding words (which makes writing complex stories a pain in the butt...)   
> I don't mean to whine to you guys, I just wanted to explain why updating took forever ... I tried writing this chapter a few times, but it never came out right and it frustrated me. I wanna do a good job on this story (and all the others, too) because it means so much to me. 
> 
> Don't worry, I am feeling well otherwise, better than I have in a long time, and right now I'll just write as much as I can when I can =) Work's a lot less busy now and I hope it'll give me more time to get back to all my stories <3 
> 
> Alrighty, enough of my blabla, we'll meet up right here next week (promise, the chapter's done already lol) and then switch back over to the Stucky fic <3


	62. Chapter 62

Before they could board the jet, Taskmaster left them, claiming that he'd done his job and would be back whenever they needed him.  
“See ya 'round,” Wade muttered and let his hand fall on the other man's shoulder. He nodded and then vanished just as the sun began to rise, while the other team members took their seats in the jet, strapping in for the quick flight to the Tower.  
The kids were in the jet already, but the medical team announced they'd need another few minutes to stabilize some of them and make sure they were all strapped in safely. After the brief stop at the Tower they'd fly right to a high security medical facility. 

 

Just before lunchtime Wade came home shaking inexplicably, missing his loved ones but so glad when he realized that Bea wouldn't be home anymore. She was already at daycare when he stumbled into the apartment, catching Peter's worried gaze as the younger man looked up from his computer where he'd been working. 

They didn't need words, not after that kind of mission.  
Peter was with him instantly, wrapping both arms around Wade's shoulders as the Merc sunk into him.

Wade didn’t mean to cry, had planned to just go to sleep for a bit and forget about everything, but the moment he felt Peter’s arms around him he couldn’t hold it anymore. Broken sobs worked their way up his throat and Peter gently caressed his back.  
“I love you,” Peter said eventually, kissing the top of Wade's head from where he hid hunched over on his husband's chest. 

 

Wade spent most of the day asleep, hiding from the world, only waking up when Peter brought him lunch, and then once a bit later when Peter offered to bring Bennie over for his nap. Wade was lying back down with Bennie on his chest, comforted by the lovely baby smell and the little noises the boy made in his sleep. He watched the baby for just a few minutes, marvelling at the peaceful little face, before sinking into a deep sleep again. 

Peter woke them both up when it was time to go to the tower to pick Bea up and have a – hopefully short – debrief.  
“Are you feeling up to it? I can go if you want,” he offered, taking Bennie from Wade's chest so the older man could sit up. He rubbed his face with both hands and groaned, shaking his head slowly.  
“Nah, I'm good. I'll pick the little sweetheart up and then we'll be home in time for dinner,” Wade decided, standing up to kiss first Bennie, then Peter softly.  
“Are you gonna take the car?” Peter asked, indicating that he wanted to know if Wade was fit to drive.  
“Yeah. I'm good, I promise. Just … shaken up a bit … it was … yeah, let's not talk about it – anyways, I'm okay,” Wade insisted, absolutely meaning it. He wouldn't dare set a foot into the car with Bea if he wasn't one hundred percent sure that he'd handle it.  
“Alright. I'll get dinner ready for you two, call me if you need anything,” Peter said, stepping closer to kiss the corner of Wade's mouth while he rocked their youngest gently on his arm. Bennie was watching them, leaning into Peter's chest.  
He wasn't wearing his earplugs or glasses right now, never did when he was sleeping, and Peter and Wade had agreed to let him without it for a little while after his naps. Eventually Bennie would have to get used to his overly strong senses and as long as it was just the two of them talking quietly it was alright.  
At first the boy had been screaming and crying after waking up, overwhelmed by every little noise just like he was after being born. But just two weeks later he was calmer, leaning into Peter and probably knowing nothing bad would happen to him. 

“If I really can't skip out and the debrief takes longer, Imma hit you up to get Bea,” Wade said, hopping into a pair of jeans and a fresh t-shirt as he spoke. He pushed the thoughts about the mission far away in his mind as he took the elevator down, checking the carseat in the back as he always did. 

 

Wade had meant to get to the debrief right away, but his steps took him to the daycare floor. He just missed Bea so much it physically hurt, and because he told himself he'd just inform her nannies about his appointment, it'd be alright.  
As soon as he stepped into the secured floor Bea's head poked out of an open door.  
“Papa!” she yelled and reached through the gate to unlock it and run out. This little rascal.  
Wade grinned when she threw herself in his arms and kissed him on the cheek.  
“How'd you know it was me? Or was it just luck?” Wade asked, happily smelling her hair and feeling her warm weight in his arms as he stood up.  
“I saw the big clock. I know when you pick me up,” Bea explained with a cute giggle, as always way too smart.  
“Of course,” Wade breathed, wishing he could just leave right now and spend the evening playing with Bea and Bennie, forgetting about the last few hours. 

“Papa?”  
“Hm?”  
“Why are you crying?” Bea asked and Wade saw her eyebrows creased when he looked at her. She reached out to brush a tear from Wade’s cheek, so very gentle with her small hand.  
“I’m just really happy to have you. And Bennie,” he sniffled and smiled through his tears when Bea leaned in to give him a big hug.  
“Was your work bad, papa? Are you sad because of it?” she asked, once again knowing so much more than she should at her age. Wade loved his daughter more than anything in the world, but sometimes he wished she wasn’t so extremely smart. He wanted her to be happily oblivious to the world like other children.  
“Yeah,” he admitted, not wanting to lie to her. “But it’s okay now. I love you.”  
“I love you, too, Papa. We go home now? I miss Bennie and Daddy.”  
“Soon, my love, I just got another thing to do here and then-”

They were interrupted by a loud wail that reminded Wade of the past night. He looked up and realized that he'd been too caught up in his feelings to notice Cap and Bucky standing at the far end of the hallway, looking at their daughter who was crying like they were about to abandon her forever.  
“Sarah doesn't like it here, Papa,” Bea explained quietly and Wade nodded, thinking to himself that it was no wonder this girl had huge issues after what she'd been through.  
“Yeah. Do you think she'll like it better when you ask her to stay? Should we try that?” Wade said, already walking towards the little family crisis going on.  
Bea nodded eagerly and went over to Sarah right away, taking her hand and eventually coaxing her into following her into one of the rooms. 

“What a little bug, she’s not even supposed to leave her room,” Wade giggled, pointing to the door behind them were some kids were still playing. He hadn't said anything about Bea opening the gate, it wouldn't help anyways. And it was super cute how she always “broke out”.  
“Wait, isn’t she supposed to be in a class for mutant children?” Steve asked, curiously peaking into the first room on the hallway as they left.  
“During the day, yeah, but in the afternoon the groups are devided differently. You know, the ones that just stay for when their parents have meetings, and the ones that are usually here all day. But Bea’s never really cared for boundaries, I guess,” Wade said, laughing softly, weirdly happy that Bea was so much like him in that regard. 

They left the floor and stepped into the elevator together, the doors just sliding closed as Bucky cleared his throat quietly.  
“Thanks for ... making her do that. We weren’t expecting that reaction from Sarah,” he explained and Wade honestly wondered how this guy was around children. Wasn't Sarah scared of him? Or maybe she liked him all the more because he was intimidating? With him around, nobody even dared getting too close to her.  
“Ah, I didn’t do much. If Bea didn’t want to, she wouldn’t have done it. But I guess her and Sarah are good pals now, so she really wanted her to feel better.”  
“I’m glad. Hey – “  
Wade interrupted Steve right away, his parent senses tingling. “Please suggest a play-date. Preferably Wednesday night. You also want some baby duty? Get experience in changing diapers?”  
Bucky chuckled to himself and Steve grinned.  
”Play-dates are a yes, but nothing during the night. Sarah’s ... well, nights are not her thing.”  
“Ah, I get it, I get it,” Wade quickly said, motioning his hand to let them know they didn’t have to explain further. “We can do a daytime date, no problem. Just text Peter, he does all our schedules.”

 

The men's good mood quickly vanished once they were at the debrief, their little team already gathered with a few of SI's staff present as well.  
“First of, thank you all for being on this mission,” Stark began the debrief and everyone in the room sent him a quiet nod. They all knew the Iron Man suit would attract too much attention, so Stark was usually not with them when the mission was within densely populated areas.  
“Dr. Chavez, how's it look?” he asked and gestured towards one of the other staff members, an older man with white hair and beard covering most of his face. He kind of looked like a muppet, Wade thought, 

“We could transport all out patients to a secure location, where they will receive treatment for the next few weeks. Most of the medical examinations are done, you will find detailed reports on it in your files,” the doctor said and Stark nodded, flicking through the pages with mild interest. The guy trusted his doctors, so there was no need to read every line.  
“Any casualties? Any info about long-term damages?”  
“Unfortunately, yes. We lost one of our patients five hours ago, there was just nothing we could do – heart failure. There will definitely be long-term damages to most of our patients, some had to have emergency surgeries as soon as they got into our care.”  
“Alright. I'll set something up, let me know as soon as the first one is expected to be released,” Stark said, his face closed off and a little pale. “Now, team leaders? Mission report.”  
Cap and Logan exchanged a look and the latter began to explain what his team had found in the house right across the street.  
There was just one more hidden basement there, with a kind of store set up where the kids were displayed behind glass.  
“I feel sick,” Wanda murmured when they'd listened to Logan's words.  
“Me, too, the fuck …” Wade grumbled and looked at his watch briefly. He wanted to be mouthy and just storm off, but he at least had to wait for Stark's report.  
“Alright, let's make this quick,” the billionaire started and they all focused on one of the screens lighting up. “While you guys were at work we tracked down the two vans that transported the children. We could catch four men, they're currently with the local authorities. There were ten more children in the vans, they will be brought to the same place as the others. As soon as we can we will have to question them, at least try and find out more. Because I hope all of us agree that those weren't the high officials we're still looking for.”  
They all hummed in agreement, Wade's blood boiling when he thought about some of those doctors still being out there somewhere. 

“Was this the only … uh, market, we took down? Can we be sure that there's nothing more hiding in the city or elsewhere?” Cap asked, his eyes fixed on the screen, where pictures of numerous locations around town were displayed – the two houses, the places the vans frequently stopped at, and the streets where they were stopped.  
“Yes. At least for the east coast. We have teams in the midwest and on the west coast look into the matter, as well as internationally. Now that we can tell them what to look for, it's only a matter of time.”  
“Better be soon,” Cap growled and looked about ready to tear someone in half.

“Yeah, we'll keep them on their heels. Until further notice, debrief dismissed,” Stark announced, looking too tired all of a sudden and Wade was reminded that despite his status as one of the Avengers' leaders, the guy was just human. Human with a heart condition, nonetheless. Shit, maybe they all really needed a break. 

Eager to get back to his best girl, Wade took the stairs down and was followed by Cap and Bucky, all three of them entering the daycare together. It was a lot more quiet than usual, what with only a few kids still being there while their parents finished up the last appointments of the day.  
This time they let one of the nannies know they were there, behaving right according to protocoll and waiting while she got their daughters.  
When the young woman left one of the rooms again, Bea walked next to her, smiling bright and looking sweet as usual. Her hand held tightly onto Sarah, who she almost had to drag behind. 

 

“Steeb!” Sarah yelled the moment she spotted him at the door, letting go of Bea’s hand to run to her father. She jumped into Steve's arms and reached out a hand for Bucky to take.  
“Hey, little princess. Did you have fun?” Steve asked gently, kissing her hair.  
“Yeah.”  
Wade smirked, because that sounded like a blatant lie. Well, she'd have fun soon enough. 

“Papa, can we go home now? I'm hungry, is dinner gonna be something yummy?” Bea, as always, talked non-stop, jumping around Wade's legs until he scooped her up in his arms, laughing and squirming until he let her back down again.  
“Yeah, we're gonna go now,” he said, taking Bea's hand as they made their way down the hallway, briefly waving to Cap and Bucky.  
“Did Daddy send a picture of Bennie?”  
“He sure did.”  
“Can I see it?”  
“We'll look at it in a minute, wanna swipe for me?” Wade asked, comfortable with their usual lightning quick conversations. They were so alike and Wade loved it. Bea reached up to swipe first Wade's, then her own bracelet over a pad near the door, registering that both of them left the floor.  
“Can I text Daddy?”  
“You don’t even know how to text!” Wade laughed in disbelief. He knew Bea had insisted on practising her letters already, constantly craving new things to learn, but typing words?  
“I can, too! I know what the letters look like!” she then insisted and reached up to push the button to call the elevator. She was the cutest little smarty-pants and Wade grinned.  
“Well, then you'll text. And then you'll drive us home. And do my taxes.”  
“Papa, you're silly!” Bea giggled, squealing when Wade pulled her up into his arms again to blow a raspberry on her cheek, making her flail around and laughing loudly. 

 

They had dinner together, a very cliché meal and Wade loved every second of it. Peter was next to Bennie, who had managed to smear most of his face with mashed potatoes and spinach. Bea sat next to Wade and talked almost non-stop about her day at daycare and all the fun activities she did with the other kids.  
“And tomorrow we paint! I make a really pretty picture.”  
“The prettiest. I'll put it up in the new house;” Wade promised. The building came along great and since the kids' rooms were mostly done, he'd started collecting artwork in the upper hallway. A few more weeks and they were ready to move in, Wade thought with happiness surging through him. He looked up to find Peter smiling at them, maybe having a similar thought. 

 

“Can we read a really long story later?” Bea asked suddenly, looking at Wade in particular. When he was about to answer, she spoke up again. “Daddy can read for us, but can we all cuddle? Then you won't have bad dreams, Papa.”  
Wade was close to crying again, he noticed and felt ashamed a little.  
Bea knew that sometimes his work gave him bad dreams. And that they were even worse when she wasn't there to heal him with whatever special ability she had.  
“That's … a super sweet idea, little bee. But before that you're gonna get a bath.”  
“With Bennie!”  
“No, you guys need your own baths today. Look at this little guy eating,” Peter stated with a grin, managing to get another spoonful of food into Bennie's mouth. Bea watched him and frowned a little bit.  
“Yeah, he's kinda dirty.”  
“And you can get that super cool Mermaid Barbie in the tub with you. With all the fishies,” Wade lured and smirked about his daughter's sparkling eyes. She loved her new toy, but she couldn't play with it around Bennie, because of all the little things that came with it. 

Sure enough she had a blast that evening in the tub, splashing around and letting all those little plastic fish swim around between the bubbles.  
“Can we watch the mermaid movie on the weekend?” Bea asked when Wade had gotten her to sit still enough so he could wash her hair. She was, in turn, rubbing shampoo into Barbie's hair.  
“Sure thing. We'll make popcorn. - Hey, how about we invite Sarah?”  
“Yeah!”  
“You know, I think she's super happy to have you as a friend,” Wade said. He still couldn't quite shake the picture of these human kids out of his mind, and it made him think about Bea and Sarah. They came from the same place as those poor children, but couldn't be more different. Wade couldn't even imagine the things Sarah must've seen, locked up in those bases for most of her young life. More than once since returning home Wade thought to himself how glad he was that Bea and Bennie never had to experience this.  
“I think she's very sad sometimes. I can see it, Papa. Her heart is all sad,” Bea explained, sighing heavily as she let her doll sink into the water. “Did she see bad things, too? Like you?”  
“Yeah. She's sad because of this. But now she's in a good place and she'll be happy, it just takes time.”  
“Papa? Do you think it helps when we do fun things together? That make her happy?”  
“Oh, that helps so much. She needs to laugh a lot.”  
“Then we'll watch the mermaid movie on the weekend, yeah?”  
“Yeah. I'll make you guys some mermaid cookies.”  
“You're the best, Papa.”


End file.
